Vytal Decisions
by FeugoFox42
Summary: The 40th Vytal Festival is about to commence, but something is afoot. Emerald Sustrai is forced make a choice; a choice that could shake the world in which everyone knows from its foundations. But will she follow through with what her head is telling her, or her heart? Multi-chapter story, eventual GemStones (among others) [Complete]
1. Building Foundations

_This takes place in an AU where the events of RWBY Vol. 1-2 happe_ _ned as shown, albeit with more thoughts going on inside people's heads. The story starts part way through the events of 'Vol3, Ch1 - Round One', but will bounce around throughout the entirety of Volume 3 - I'll even throw some Flashbacks in_

 _Cover Image Source: . /rwby/images/c/c1/VytalFestival_ /revision/latest?cb=20151008172726_

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"Hey! Might be hard to eat without this." Ruby frantically patted around her outfit, panicking and audibly denying to herself that she had dropped it, causing Emerald to genuinely laugh for the first time in what seemed like forever. "Good to see you, Ruby." The cloak wearing girl took the wallet back from her friend and put it away.

"Oh! Thanks, Emerald! Oh. Guess I dropped it. Girl pockets are the worst!" she replied, slouching as she said so. Her sister Yang spoke next.

"What's up, Em?"

"Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!"

Ruby blushed – she was very easily embarrassed. But that's what happens when you're younger than basically everyone in the school by a couple of years. The girl mumbled something akin to "Oh, shut your stupid little face...", which Emerald barely managed to make out over her Faunus teammate's reply.

"I heard your team progressed to the next round too."

"You know, I feel that we haven't seen your other teammates." Weiss chimed in.

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang spoke again. Emerald tilted her head up in thought, remembering how she blasted opponents with her revolvers, then slashed behind her as Mercury Black kicks out a shotgun blast with his boots. Cinder did the same with her own target, landing the poor soul at the feet of Neo, who was in disguise as to not draw attention to her unmistakeable everyday pallet of strawberry pink, chocolate brown and vanilla white. Whilst she was trying her best to play her part, Emerald felt so bad watching as people she had grown to trust be so violent towards a bunch of kids who basically were there for fun – whereas they were there for one sole purpose with the outcome being grimmer than anyone at this festival could possibly have imagined would have happened. She came back to reality, nodding.

"Really well" she replied almost dismissively, trying to push the topic away from her team.

"That's great" the Beacon team leader chirped. "Why don't we all go and get a victory food together?" The mint haired girl was taken aback slightly. Of course, she'd _loved_ to go and have food with them! Years of stealing and scavenging force you nigh on impulse to jump at the opportunity of free food. With people she genuinely considered as friends, as well. Win-Win, right? But she had to play her part…

"Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but my teammates are all kind of..." the five girls looked back at Mercury as he sniffs the inside of a boot; he thought nothing of it, just checking to see if it was a good quality leather boot. "...introverted. Really socially awkward" she finished, her lies flew from her tongue into the ears of the four girls standing opposite her.

The brawler was the first to speak what Team RWBY seemed to be thinking "Ooh, yeah, I could see that." Emerald giggled at their responses. For once she seemed content with this idle chitchat and she was happy to go along with it. God, she _wanted_ to go along with it. Ruby Rose honestly thought of her as a friend, and the rest of her team showed no objections to her being there either. It was such a nice feeling. A feeling of acceptance that she hadn't felt in so many years.

Emerald, knowing full well that she had a script she needed to follow to get information out of the team, decided to make her own decision and cut their conversation short. "Alright, well Merc and I going to catch some more fights." As the rest of her team turned and walked off to find a food stall, Ruby waved her arm at Emerald, yelling "Have fun!" as they turned and almost parted ways with each other. But once again Emerald went off script, hesitating before she walked back to the leader grabbing her shoulder to get her private attention. "Ruby?"

"What is it Emerald?" The innocent little girl's inquiry made it so difficult for her to keep composed. Had she not been so disciplined and had not spent years learning to hide her true intentions behind several walls of lies, the plans would have very easily spilled right out of her mouth there and then:

' _There is a plot, of which I am involved in, which ends with the tower being destroyed and Beacon overrun with Grimm._ '

She wanted so bad to tell her friend to get away and be safe. But in the end, everything would be traced back to her and she would end up in a worse position than she was in when she was found by Cinder. She could not tell all and run from them at this point, it felt that there was nowhere on Remnant she could hide. And going through with the plan is out of the question – so many lives interrupted and ruined all for one woman's selfish desires for power. In the end, all she managed was:

"Whatever happens, promise me that you won't think badly of me."

"Emerald, what are…?"

" _Promise!_ " the girl demanded, placing both her hands on the other girl's shoulders abruptly and speaking in a forceful whisper in her best efforts not to alert her own partner, still sniffing away trying to find a decent pair of boots. Sadly, her whisper was still loud enough to be picked up by Faunus ears as Blake's bow twitched and her eyes glanced back at the pair.

"Okay Em, I promise." Silver eyes met red as an air of trust formed over them. Emerald instinctively smiled and hugged the smaller girl as her way of saying thanks, which she responded with by reciprocating the show of friendly affection. Blake grinned and turned her head back, continuing to follow her buxom partner and the Heiress towards the smell of food.

"Oh, by the way, who've you got moving up to the doubles round?" Emerald asked, releasing the hug at a natural point and asking out of genuine curiosity.

"Well, we voted and it ended up on Weiss and Yang. I voted for me but, y'know… can't win 'em all." The taller girl giggled at the fifteen year olds infectious optimism even in her own disappointment.

"No, you can't Rubes. Good luck. I'll see you later!" She smiled again as she turned and walked away, reality sinking back in as she left the aura of the cloak clad girl who was running to catch up with her team. Red eyes sank to the floor as she wondered away completely missing Mercury as she passed and only realising he was there when she heard muffled metallic clunking in the footsteps beside her.

"So, how are the new friends?" he enquired, sarcasm oozing from his voice. Emerald scowled at the floor, no wanting to really acknowledge the fact he was there. Mercury just shrugged. "Orders are orders." He was right. She had to play along. There was more than enough time for her to come up with a decent enough plan to get away from this mess, and it couldn't be rushed. She and Mercury have been working together (against their better will, mind) for long enough to know what the other would do on impulse. The sliver-grey haired knew that she'd try to hit him in the face, confusing him and then she'd use her semblance to trick him into thinking that she had started running, he'd run after that imaginary construct whilst she sneaked away. Emerald mashes her fingers together angrily as a grimace grew on her face as she put on her façade.

"I just... how can they be so happy all the time!?"

"Did you at least get what we want?" Emerald realised that she did. _Barely_ , she thought as she waved his question away, smirking to herself that her little persona worked on him. Were she not truthfully curious with Ruby in wondering who was moving forward for Team RWBY, she wouldn't have this information. Cinder and Mercury may have grown suspicious and she'd be stuck in this nightmare forever – unable to escape.

"It's the heiress and the bimbo." God, she hated being so forcefully derogative about them like this.

"Hmm, alright. At least we know who we're working with."

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Hope y'all enjoyed this introduction chapter. I'm gonna try with a multi-chaptered story as opposed to a one shot.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated :)


	2. Rooftop Roman-ce

It was late. Cinder was preoccupied with getting the plan perfect and fixing the "randomization" process for the tournament. Mercury was sleeping, which would be a relief from his constant presence when he was awake, if not for the fact that Emerald was such a light sleeper and Mercury was so obnoxiously loud even when he wasn't aware of the fact, that sleeping became an almost impossibility if she didn't get to bed first. Neo was, well… Neo was now where Emerald was going to be in about 15 minutes.

Emerald remembered walking down this street about a month ago with Cinder and Mercury when they first discussed this stage of the plan. It seemed so great at the time: Cinder becomes the Fall Maiden, Mercury and Emerald never have to worry about anything ever again. A pure slice of perfection.  
But at what cost?  
Hundreds dead, hundreds more dying. So many men, women and children running scared and calling out for their saviours in the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Beacon Academy to arrive and save them. Many of them still trainees, still unprepared. Still willing to lay down their lives for a cause that is all but lost… Of all the shit she had been through this was by and large the absolute fucking worst thing that could or has ever happened to her! And she wanted out, now! Especially as she was just…

She looked down the alleyway she'd just got to, intending to walk past it like most people do with most alleyways – with the exception of those who like to make dirty deals in those alleyways, out of sight of the general public – but her eyes shall forever stare down this particular tunnel of brick and stonework whenever she got near, even if it is just in passing. During the Breach in Vale where Grimm attacked a few blocks of the city, she and Mercury helped keep the monsters at bay. And they tried to save as many people as they could. Looking down that alleyway now, she saw a faint flicker of lone candle and a wreath of flowers with a photo of a young boy – no older than eight – with the message 'To my special little man, you will always be missed' inscribed in white ink at the bottom of the photo.

From this distance and at this light only a Faunus with hawk like vision could read what was written, especially at this angle. But Emerald had no need to read it; she had committed the entire thing to memory.

On the day of the Breach, Glynda helped rebuild what was destroyed of Vale in a matter of minutes. Most were saved. But that day a young boy died, crushed by falling debris from the building, trying to escape a rampaging King Taijitu. Glynda found the boy lifeless under the concrete and Emerald just so happened to be walking past at that time. That day was the day she was finally awakened to the horror that the plan could bring upon thousands of innocents like that poor little boy.  
When the flowers and candles were first laid here in his memory the dark skinned girl came and let all her emotions flow like she had known the child her whole life. He was just a stranger, but it had such a lasting effect on her. Every week, when the candle had burned itself down to the end of the wax she would go off and buy a new one, just to light it and replace the old. She hurried off with tears in her eyes; Neo could get a little irritated at times if she was late – especially when doing this.

Even as she reached the rooftop Neo was gaily waiting upon, the cracked moon caused the remains of her tears to sparkle like jewels under her eyes. The ice-cream themed woman noticed in an instant, even before the red eyed girl could hastily wipe what was left of them away – not having her voice meant that Neo was extra astute with her other senses. She looked up at the taller girl and, due to lack of voice to converse any other way, signed a simple word that she knew they both understood both the meaning and significance of.

" _Picture?_ "

A tearful nod was all that was needed before the waterworks started flowing from Emerald once again. All Neo did was wrap her arms around her one true friend in a sisterly embrace. Whilst the crying may not have subsided any quicker, the hug between the two of them shared so much history and understanding that no words needed to be spoken to figure out what was wrong. Especially as this was not the first time Emerald had arrived on the rooftop having looked down that alleyway with tears in her eyes.

The shorter girl walked hand in hand with her friend towards their usual ledge of the building, staring out onto the water. It was so serene, Emerald wished she knew what her friend had said when she first saw this view. Yeah, there was the signed " _Beautiful"_ when they first arrived, but that didn't do the view justice. She wanted to hear her say it, and that's what hurts her so much about seeing her friend like this. Neo dropped the grip of their linked hands and stood a few feet away from her friend nearer the centre of the building. There was an audible preparation breathe before she turned towards her mint haired friend.

"You ready, Neo?" A grin and a nod were Emerald's only indication as to her answer. "Remember, I can't choose when this ends. You just have to accept it when it does, alright?" The nod this time was accompanied with an eye roll, a clear indicator of the fact that this had been said so many times that it grew to bore the short girl. "Alright…" Red eyes squinted as Emerald chucked Neo her umbrella. She caught it with ease as she removed her dark gloves revealing her pristine hands, colour co-ordinated nail polish and a beautifully simple silver ring on her fourth finger.  
There was nothing too showy about the ring at all, it needed to comfortably fit underneath her gloves and not be too inhibiting during fights, but it showed a true level of craftsmanship and affection in its simplicity. And encased in the centre of the ring was a singular gemstone – a fiery orange piece of amber that shone red under the right circumstances. As she stared at it grinning, a rough hand rested on her shoulder. She turns to see Roman Torchwick, hat on crooked, hair covering one eye yet still intently staring at her and the rhodochrosite and black opal dual gemmed ring she gave him resting on his finger too.

"Hello beautiful" he utters with a grin.

Emerald watched her friend hold hands with thin air, bow down to empty space and start dancing opposite nothingness for nearly 30 minutes. Anyone flying past would have seen the same. But what Emerald knew over everyone else is that this is probably the only thing she can do from keeping the one friend in her group from fading away into the void of emotionlessness that Cinder and Mercury have clearly fallen into. To her knowledge, the only people who knew that Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan were officially an item were herself, the jewellers the pair of them must have gone to, the person who held the ceremony and, of course, the couple themselves. She considered it a privilege to be part of a small group of people to know the sweet truth about this little girl she saw before her. Well, little in size at least – Neo was easily 6 or 7 years her senior. Coming up here and seeing her dance their first dance with what is essentially a ghost of her husband gives her hope for the future for the pair of them. Neo isn't bad; she is just doing what needs to be done to get her beloved back to her safely. Roman's reckless, sure. Undeniably so; but he did it for Neo. Emerald remembered trying to decipher what she was telling her one time. It took so much longer than she would have liked it to take, but it stuck with her nonetheless…

" _Roman. Neo. Dust. Job. One. End. Pay. Disappear. Happy. Together._ "

The ice cream girl leaned in and passionately kissed nothing, a tear finding a path down the left side of her face. The illusion was over, and Roman had disappeared once again back into the cell he was most likely locked away in. Neo kept her eyes closed and smiled a content smile before opening her eyes once more to accept the bitter reality of isolation. Reacting purely on impulse and muscle memory, she bolted straight over to Emerald and caught her just before she hit the rooftop. The pair of them were aware of the risks and damage this does to Emerald, they have been doing this for long enough. Laying her down, she moved the thick blanket and flask over to her weak friend and attended to her as she needed. This took a lot out of Emerald, but if it kept Neo sane until she got her Roman back they felt it was worth the risk to her body.

Emerald stirred at the blinding sunlight of the morning as it broke from behind the building surrounding them.

"Neo?" The short girl glanced over at her teammate, parasol opened and twirling away merrily to a tune in her own head. Her presence was all that was needed to reassure her that everything was okay, that nothing had happened yet. "Neo, I'm going to find a way to get us out of this mess." Red eyes looked at the dual toned hair of her friend as she continued, "What they want me to do, I'm not going to do it." Neo's dual coloured eyes simultaneously shifted to white in a literal blink as her face was swept with a wave of pure fear for their lives. The disagreeing head shake was one of panic but the other girl just went on to explain further, "I know it might spell doom for me, but it gives you a chance to find Roman. I need to play the part for as long as I can, then when they need me I simple can't do it. I have too much taken out of me and I simply disappear. Only I don't run, I stay." Whilst her eyes had returned to the normal one brown one pink, Neo's facial expression changed from fear to confusion. "I have friends here Neo. If Mercury and Cinder believe I'd run, and trust me I would, I want to do what they never expect me to do and stay. I'm surrounded by caring people who can protect me. You could stay too if you and… "

" _Together. Disappear. Happy._ "

"Yeah…" Emerald sighed reluctantly. "C'mon, Mercury is probably wondering where I am." The pair walk up to each other and hug like it was their last time. "Stay safe for me Neo." She nods as she picks up her umbrella, the blanket and flask and then shatters into a shower of glass leaving Emerald on the roof top in solitude.

The serenity was disturbed by the aggressive rumbling of her scroll. Mercury had been messaging her for the past few minutes, the latest reading: **'** _ **How does what you are doing hold any importance over the fact that Qrow Branwen just arrived?!**_ **'** In retaliation, all she replied was **'** _ **What? A girl can't do some private shopping? Besides I needed some ideas**_ **'**

As she made her way down to street level, her scroll rumbled once more. Expecting a snarky comment from Mercury – nothing she couldn't handle – or a nasty message from Cinder – something she'd rather do without – she was instead greeted with a simple message from Neo.

' _ **Stay safe. Be free. For us all! Xo**_ **'**

* * *

So _this_ chapter took a little bit of a turn I wasn't expecting, but I'm proud of the result.  
I can not promise massively regular updates, but rest assured I have my ideas for the remaining chapters

Once again, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	3. The Stem of The Problem

The day was drawing to a close. Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos had defeated their competitors and had advanced forward into the Singles Round of the festival earlier that day, as had one of Atlas' teams. Ironwood looked particularly smug when he heard the news. And with one final fight left scheduled for the day, nothing seemed like it could stop the joy that the 40th Vytal Festival was bringing to the citizens of Vale and the spectators of the fights. But atop the tower in the heart of Beacon Academy, the pleasantries of the people below were soon forgotten as much more serious conversations were being had. As the elevator doors slid shut removing the crop wielding Huntress and the Atlas General from sight and mind, the scythe bearer took another swig from his hip flask before turning his attention to the Headmaster staring out onto his school.

"Oz, we gotta do something about this" he slurred; that last hit of alcohol still not quite getting where it was meant to be going by the time he started talking.

"Qrow, I understand your concerns and believe me I am going to address them but…"

"But nothing, Oz!" Qrow interrupted. "There is an evil out there commanding a power we don't even know yet and she has sent people down here to carry out her dirty work. Your sitting around on your ass ain't gonna do much good once the world is plunged into perpetual darkness." There was no attempt from Professor Ozpin to talk again, he simply just turned around, rested his elbows on his desk and gestured for his friend to continue knowing full well that whatever was going to come out of Qrow's mouth would either be drunken nonsense or would be turned on its head once Ozpin started talking again. "Those kids I saw on the day that I found Amber? They're here. They're part of your little 'tournament'. When the Ice Queen and I were having our little… uh…" He swayed a little bit as the words failed to reach his head but the alcohol did.

"When you and Ms. Schnee were having your little, shall we say, 'tussle' on the courtyard?" the Headmaster said, finishing the other man's sentence for him to save his brain from having to overwork itself.

"I was going to call it 'flirtatious banter' – yours'll do." Qrow smirked. Whilst he could tell that he had grown quite used to not doing it physically to the point of it being second nature, the Avian Huntsman could tell that when his friend retorted with a simple "I see", his eyes were meant to be rolled. "Anyways, I saw the boy in the crowd. Silver-grey hair, wore grey, pretty sure he was from Mistral." While he may have been a little bit drunk, Qrow is a Huntsman first and foremost. This means he can notice when someone's eyes dart very quickly trying to identify their next footing, or when their eyes flinch even the slightest at the mention of something the opponent knows about. Although this was no battle of fisticuffs, Qrow knew he'd landed a solid hit with that last verbal hook. "Hmm, so that one nicked you, eh Oz?"

"No. I simply de…"

"Liar"

"Qrow!" The red eyed drunkard raised his hands up in admittance of his slip of the tounge, letting his superior continue. "I simply decided that taking action wouldn't be the right thing to do in this scenario. There are some things that are set in fact, Qrow. There will always be Creatures of Grimm roaming the world. There will be those who seek to be powerful, and those who seek to keep power away from the powerful. There will be four Maidens, Qrow. **Four!** " Unsure of what to do, the dark-haired Huntsmen unscrewed the lid of his hip flask and tried to swig once more. But Ozpin moved fast, grabbing the flask from out of Qrow's hand with enough force to frighten a little jump from the usually stoic man. This show of ferocity was something neither of them really expected to happen, causing the room to go as silent as it could go – what which the constant sound of giant cogs ticking away around the pair.

"You know I trust you, right Qrow?" Ozpin uttered, breaking the uncomfortable non-silence of his office.

"After what we've been through together, I'd hope as much"

"Then you must put your trust in me Qrow. I have done nothing against you, I know you acted upon your impulse and what you thought was right with Amber, correct?" Alcohol probably wasn't the best choice of a drink to be having at a time like this, Qrow thought to himself. Even just the fumes are making Oz talk gibberish.

"Uh huh, sure."

"What if I told you that in doing so you caused an unintentional branch on the tree of reality, one that was never meant to have sprouted in the first place."

"To that," the man responded "I'd say that you may need to stop lacing your 'tea' with whatever it is you're lacing it with, 'cause it is doing some crazy shit to your head." The Beacon Headmaster was about to respond with the truth to his old colleague when General Ironwood called him up explaining that Pyrrha Nikos had arrived at the tower upon his request.

"There is so much I cannot explain to you simply, Qrow. Even if I wanted to. It will take a little time, something we lack at this moment. For now," he handed the man his hip flask back to him and he walked towards the elevator and prepared to meet a very special lady, "you and I have some explaining of our own to do."

* * *

"Farewell, Ms. Nikos"

"Goodbye, sir." As the doors slid shut once more, Glynda and Ironwood escorting the potential new Fall Maiden out of the building, Qrow turned to the Headmaster once again.

"So, that whole tree analogy thing from earlier?" Ozpin sighed then started retracing their steps back towards the critically injured girl in the Vault, the avian fighter following.

"The Maiden story, as you and I both know, is true. There really are four females in this world who control powers that every man, woman and child would gaze upon in pure awe, with jobs that silently bring balance to the world so to not alert their presence to the world. However, _someone_ found out about and is searching for them, at least that is what we can assume their intentions are. And, if it is, they succeeded in part - one of them rests in a critical state right in front of us." He gestured to the scarred girl being supported by state-of-the-art Atlas Technology in the pod on the gentlemen's left. "But many people fail to read into the entirety of the story, and glance over one very important detail..." Qrow's eyes narrowed as Ozpin turned to face his friend, glancing at him and knowing that whatever Oz was about to say it was going to be big. "The Tale of The Four Maidens mentions how the girls bring balance and order to the world and keep everything in check. There is a fifth character in the story many glance over once his work is done, keeping those who bring balance in check..."

"The Wizard" Qrow finished. Ozpin nodded as he continued.

"Unlike the Maidens, whose powers transfer to the one who is in their dying thoughts, this lineage is most peculiar. The Wizard knew when he was going to die. Not because he felt his body give way, or because an arrow found its way deep into the man's skull, no. He knew because, around ten years prior, he felt his body be reborn. Not his current body, mind you. A new body. A new person with the potential to uphold his legacy." Ozpin started pacing, reciting the story with the combination of the excitement you get when you first tell someone a story and the tiredness of having recited it hundreds of times prior.  
"He found out about the boy. He realised that the day he felt that strange sensation was none other than the child's seventh birthday - the day an aura really shows itself within a person. And when his time came some years later, the young boy instinctively journeyed to the place of his former self's prize possession. Upon holding onto it, the voice of The Wizard spoke with him in his mind and everything about the boy's life up until that point fell into place and made sense. The young boy's name was Byron - and he was the first heir to the title of The Wizard. And the prize possession," the Headmaster raised his cane out in front of him, "was this cane."

Now, Qrow had seen some shit. He'd heard worse, too. And, whilst he would hate to admit it, he'd done pretty bad things as well. But an information bomb like this one sent a shiver down his spine like nothing ever had before. After wetting his mouth once more with a swig of alcohol, he managed to utter, "So, Mr. Wizard, what's this got to do with your tree?"

"Well, as you have sussed out, I am part of a long line of boys who awoke one day with a voice inside my head and essentially became The Wizard. Not only did I gain a voice in my head, not only did I unwillingly feel the birth of my successor's aura roughly nine years ago, I also gained an ability to see branches of a mystical, ethereal tree that showed basically every future and every possibility that could ever happen."

"I'll bite, but that still doesn't explain _my_ branch"

"Well most events in this world, major or minor, have three possible outcomes: They happen 'Now', they happen 'Later', they don't happen - they 'Never' happen - at all. Like you, with your hip flask." Ozpin turned as Qrow lifted up the flask to his mouth. He paused, wondering if his friend was trying to prove a point, then decided that he didn't care and took a swig anyway. "And in this case, you chose 'Later'. You didn't have to stop for me, but as you did it didn't happen 'Now'. On the flip side, you could have put the flask back in your pocket and it would have 'Never' happened. Of course, you will still drink from it later, but in the here and now those were your three options. Some big events can do a lot to the local area, but it is not bad that they should go any which way. In the end, they wind up along the same path." The red eyed man shrugged as his friend turned away from him again, facing the wounded girl.  
"There are some extreme events - Branching Events - wherein there are only ever two options in the here and now: 'Now' or 'Never'. And when it comes to the Maidens, their lives forever rest upon a branch. In the here and now, they die and their powers are transferred 'Now', or they live and their powers are transferred 'Never', simple as. You interfering when it came to Amber created an unforeseen third option with the Maidens, one that should have never existed. Your Misfortune potentially doomed civilisation as we know it!"

Qrow too looked at the girl in the Atlas Stasis pod, a girl living in constant pain because of his actions. "I get that a lot, Oz. So what do we do?"

"We? We do nothing." The response threw the scythe wielder, what was Oz playing at? Did he not just say that what he did potentially doomed everyone and everything? "But we only do nothing because the world seems to be doing something about it for us. Emerald Sustrai, a fighter from one of the Haven teams and also one of Amber's attackers, has changed from what she could have been. Something happened after Amber that, whilst still on your branch, is fighting with all its might to push the balance back onto where it needs to go."

"With Amber alive, her attacker captured and all well with the world?" Ozpin shook his head, knowing full well that Amber's survival was nearly out of the question.

"But I suggest that we take our leave back up to my office. Besides, if my memory serve me right, she and her partner are competing against some of my own students very soon. It might be an idea to keep an eye on her Qrow. What she is doing looks to be the best path we could ever imagined, even if it seems bad at first."

"And by that, you mean...?" The green clad man smiled, holding his cane firmly in his grasp.

"When the time comes, you will know what to do and you will know it is right. And so will she."

* * *

This was a very conversation driven chapter, I know. But it's what I felt was right.  
Chapter 4 may take some time to write, as I am not too great with action - but we will see how it goes.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	4. Fighting Thoughts

Had to admit; this was a sensation she hadn't felt in a while. Coco never felt this anxious going out on missions, tasked with keeping the people safe. And this wasn't even a life or death situation, this was a friendly tournament. So why all the nerves? Luckily for her, Velvet was by her side right now, holding her hand to get her through the worst of it until she and Yatsuhashi made their way onto the battlefield.  
The gunner was in an odd state of confusion with the whole scenario – the feeling was so comforting, but it always had been her being the one to comfort the shy Faunus whenever something bad was looming, even before she was her little Easter Bunny. Velvet often voiced her distain for that nickname in public, but Coco knew she loved it really – especially when they were getting intimate. The rabbit Faunus was a completely unrecognisable person when the gloves, and the rest of the clothes for that matter, were off. And Coco just loved to tease her girlfriend with the name whenever she could anyway. But the way Velvet reached out and took her hand was very reminiscent of the earlier days where that gesture was just the girl's comfort blanket.

When CFVY was first formed and they were getting used to each other as a team, the dual haired leader remembered taking the shy girl's hand on their first mission and said to her "I will always be here for you Velvet. No matter what is wrong, you can take my hand or my beret or whatever makes you feel safe and keep it with you until you feel better – they will always be with me." The team leader remembered how the Faunus' face shone with glee at the thought of someone she hardly knew looking out for her as a person rather than looking down on her as a Faunus. It shone almost as bright as when Coco asked her to be her date and girlfriend right before the end of first year dance. She even recalled how Velvet binkied at the question – just about the single cutest thing she had ever seen her now-girlfriend do. Many of their fellow students either came up and congratulated them at the dance or remained silently impartial to the entire thing, smiling and nodding from afar. But the girls both agreed, the consensus in the year was that they were all happy that they had each found the right person. The sex they had that night confirmed it – it was fantastic! It was fantastic before, but that was just to supress Velvet's urges and Coco wasn't exactly going to turn down an uncharacteristically aroused, attractive Faunus grabbing her by the collar and basically pleading to her "Fuck me". This time it had a meaningful intimacy behind it, and boy did it show.

But here they were; waiting in the wings for the two professors-turned-commentators to announce the next fight – her fight. Both of Velvet's hands clasped her oddly quiet and shaky girlfriend's own as she finally spoke.

"Coco, what is bothering you?"

"Velves, I couldn't tell you. Something seems bad; I couldn't tell you what but it's in the air. It's like Breach all over again, I felt something then too. I think it's to do with them." She turned her head towards their competition, the mint-haired girl and the silver-grey haired boy from Mistral, the same ones who helped at the Breach and who seemed to set off a nervous feeling inside the gunner's core. Her girlfriend took them in for a moment, then turned her attention back towards the one person she truly cared about, squeezing her hand tighter.

"It's not like you to be like this, it worries me. I worry about you at the best of times and this is sending me into overdrive." In an instant, Coco's brain found its way back from the stressing over what must be a trivial concern and by instinct sent signals to the girl's mouth to make her say:

"Just you wait until I get my hands on you tonight, then I'll show you what going into overdrive _really_ feels like!" A playful smirk made its way across her face. Velvet's face relaxed upon hearing the girl she fell in love with nearly a year ago be to her normal self once again. The smaller girl wrapped her arms around her lover's neck, a grin making its way onto her face too.

"I look forward to it; Victory Sex is always fun with you Coco." She planted a tender kiss on her lips.

"Not as fun as it is with you, my little Easter Bunny."

"Coco…" the girl's face flushed a bright crimson at the nickname, but resting her forehead against her partner's soon quelled that unease. Coco's eyes opened to glance at her opponents once again and noticed that the female was looking over her shoulder at them and… smiling? And not even an uncomfortable, awkward, 'I've Just Glanced Over My Shoulder and Saw A Public Display Of Affection' smile, it was a caring, honest, 'I'm Happy For You' smile. This thought plagued the fashionista until a certain caffeine-fuelled professor announced to the world:

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for the final battle of the Vytal Festival today: Yatsuhashi Daichi and Coco Adel from Beacon, against Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black from Mistral!" The crowd cheered as the two teams readied themselves to walk onto the battlefield. Velvet grabbed Coco's hands one last time, kissing her on the cheek and wishing her girlfriend luck as she scurried off to join Fox who was sitting and waiting for her in the spectator's seats, confused as to why he was there – it's not like he could _see_ any of the action taking place. Yatsuhashi woke from his meditation and walked up to his team leader, revitalised and mentally prepared for the battle ahead.

"Ready?" he questioned, already knowing the answer. CFVY's team leader smirked as she fixed her beret on her head and replied,

"You bet, big guy."

* * *

"Okay, I was not ready for this…" Coco admitted to herself, pulling herself off the ground. The trees in this quadrant of the arena were densely packed, so very few people – if any – could see in between them from the stands. And she knew that her girlfriend would start to worry if she didn't get out fast so that she could see her. Her fear crept back from earlier, her hands shaking so hard not even a heavy-duty Gatling gun could steady.

"Coco." The duel haired girl spun round, barrels whirling so she did not waste any time dealing with the girl who was trying to trick her, calling her name like she knew her to throw her off guard. But the barrels wound down to a stop as the gunner watched as Emerald dropped her weapons and walked towards her, hands in the air.

"That was a stupid idea, kid. Now you've got no means to defend yourself" she mentioned, though anyone with even the smallest hint of moral fibre in their body could tell that this was someone with something more pressing on their mind, and Coco saw that in the red eyes of her opposition.

"Look, I don't want to fight you right now but I needed to tell somebody. Now was the perfect, and really the only, time I could tell anyone."

"You do realise," the gunner replied, an eyebrow arching in confusion, "that this is a _tournament_ , right? The entire purpose is to fight"

"Can I please just tell you – it's eating me up inside that I can't say and it is important for everyone's survival." _Survival_. That one word hit a nerve with Coco. She retracted her gun back into its briefcase and walked towards the mint haired girl who looked scared and yet relieved that she could speak her mind. Her head lowered as she began to speak.

"I need to be quick. There is a plan – I am involved in it – which causes mass panic in the school causing Grimm to attack and the Tower to fall."

"But if you're involved, why would…"

"I'm not involved anymore! Well, I am but they don't know I'm not." She looked up at the person she was entrusting and for the first time since she had been to this school she saw her coffee brown eyes staring back at her, her sunglasses held in one hand as her other hand rest on Emerald's shoulder. "It's complicated and I promise that if everything I planned goes well I will explain everything. But for now, know that I _need_ to beat you here." The gloved hand retracted as the look of sympathy turned into one of anger – she felt like she had been betrayed. Her hand reached around to grab her briefcase, but the dark-skinned girl reached out to stop her, red eyes brimming with tears. "Coco, I need you to trust me that what I am saying is the truth! If I win here, then my team advances. Providing they succeed and advance as well, then Mercury fights with Yang and that's when they want me to cause an illusion that starts the chain reaction leading to Beacon Tower falling!"

"How do you know he will fight Yang?" Upon hearing a claxon, the pair of them look up at the sky to see Yatsuhashi being eliminated, his valiant fight with Mercury lost.

"Because my boss fixes the fight we needed to fix to get us here. Please Coco, believe me!" A tear fell down her face as she finished, "I don't want anyone else do die or be hurt because I didn't do the right thing." After what seemed like an eternity of nothing, Coco sighed and nodded to Emerald who in return wiped her tears and grinned. "Thank you, Coco. Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't tell."

"You have my word though; everything." She grabbed her sickles again, and turned to the gunner. "And sorry, this might hurt…"

With a ringing gunshot, Coco flew out of the forest, landing all the way in the centre of the stadium next to an unconscious Yatsuhashi. Emerald walked from the forest, swinging her sickles by the chains.

"And with an amazing upset" Oobleck announced "Emerald and Mercury are victorious!" Velvet's hand raised to her mouth. Fox rested his hand on her shoulder as she uttered the name of her girlfriend in shock. Ruby, who was sat elsewhere in the stadium, looked down to see two second years who she was inspired by, bested so easily. She and everyone else were so caught up in her thoughts, no one else noticed the smile Cinder Fall was sporting as she got up from her seat and walked away to the combined cheers and boos from the respective Mistral and Beacon crowds. As the two members of CFVY came off back to the wings of the stadium, one being carried off by paramedics to receive Aura shots to help bring him round from his unconscious state, the other hobbling in discomfort, Coco talked to Fox in a hushed voice.

"Fox, stay with Yatsuhashi until he gets a bit better. Velves and I need to talk in private for a little while." She winks at him, but due to her brain being slightly knocked out of whack by Emerald's attack she momentarily forgot that her teammate was blind. The little Faunus giggled, causing the milky eyed man to roll his eyes after putting two and two together then nodding to her, agreeing to her terms. As the men of the team left to tend to the larger man's damages, the females came together as the bunny girl spoke first.

"Coco, what the hell happened to you in there?"

"Not here. I have got some serious shit to tell you." Sorry Emerald, Velvet doesn't count.

* * *

Back at the CFVY dorm room, the two female members of the team were sat on Velvet's bed, the Faunus' ears drooped at the sight of her confident team leader so unlike herself. "And I have no idea what she means. It's so… annoying!" The gunner lay back on the bed, her frustration being taken out on a singular spot on the ceiling. Velvet just lay down next to her, holding her hand and trying to make sense of it all.

"I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I have no idea exactly what she means either." The fashionista let out an audible groan of annoyance before her girlfriend could continue. "But clearly what she said was true, you said she was pleading to you to let her speak."

"And she deceived me, Velves. I 'had' to lose to keep her 'plan' going." The anger in her voice built at a pace. "I could have, fuck I _should_ have, just kept the barrel whirling and unload a few founds into her. Dropped her Aura reserve right there and then; who could stop me?"

"Coco…"

"But no! I let my guard down and listened to her and now look where we are! The one fucking opportunity I get to partake in a Vytal Festival and I basically forfeit the match to a green haired bitch who puppy dog eyed her way into making me care!"

"Coco Adel!" The taller girl's gaze flew towards that of her partner. The quick kiss that Velvet planted on her lips was more than enough to bring Coco down a peg or two. "You are one of the most selfless people I have ever met in my life. You let so many other people's perils and worries pile up on top of you whilst you let yours build up without a second thought. Today was another show of the Coco I fell in love with; the compassionate, tender and caring Coco that is always there for the little guy."

"But she's not here right now." The quick response was accompanied with a brisk turn so that all the rabbit Faunus could see was the back of the other girl. "Who you have lying in front of you is a girl who got her arse thoroughly beaten." She peeped back at the smaller girl. "And _not_ in the way you know I like." And with that, the duel haired girl returned to her post of staring at the wall.

"Which reminds me Coco…" Velvet said knowingly, her left arm grabbing the team leader's easiest to reach arm whilst tracing her finger up and down her lover's back. "You said we would." Once again though, the response from the fashionista was snappy and to the point.

"Quit it Coco. Victory Sex implies we need to be 'Victorious', funnily enough. The only prize I've won is the ability to stare angrily at the wall." But moping was all but forgotten when a soft hand forcefully grasped her wrists and pulled her back on to her back, arms stretched as far as her partner's smaller frames would reach; instead the moping was replaced by shock.

"I know," she said as she leaned in and kissed her lover again, much more passionately than the first time. "You're angry that you lost a fight you feel you should have easily won, right?" The beret wearing girl nodded. "So, as Victory Sex is out, why don't we go for a double – Consolation Sex and De-Stress Sex?"

"Innuendos, Velvet?" Coco smirked as she rolled her usually submissive partner onto her back, arms holding her by the wrists just as the Faunus had tried on her, her usual confidence flowing back into her like a surge of electricity. "Didn't realise my little Easter Bunny wanted this so badly."

"How could I forget?" she responded with a wink, the nickname clearly not phasing her anymore. "' _I'll show you what going into overdrive_ _ **really**_ _feels like!_ '" The pair's jackets were soon on the floor, starting a pile that would evidently be growing in the next few minutes. They kissed again as Velvet's hand found their way around Coco's waist and grabbed hold. "Remember now, Coco?" Coco's knee eased its way slowly up between her lover's legs, causing a gasp from the little rabbit girl.

"Yeah I do. And I so fucking am Velves!"

Fox was walking back to the dorm, as Yatsuhashi had been told that he just needed a night in the ward but he would be perfectly fine come morning. He got a few paces away before he made out the undeniably obvious sounds of Coco and Velvet in the heat of passion with one another. Without even pausing to take in what was happening, the copper haired boy simply turned on his heel and walked away, whistling quite loudly to block out the sounds. Whilst it definitely sucks not being able to see anything, Fox realised that it did have its benefits every once in a while.

* * *

I really loved this chapter, Crosshares is such a great ship and I really enjoyed writing them. I admit there isn't as much action as I had initially planned for it, so I know I've got some making up to do in any later chapters.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	5. Something Old, Something New -

"The Fall Maiden…" Pyrrha repeated to herself as she walked back from the tower to the JNPR dorm. It was a lot to take in at once, and her head was just spinning wildly at the thought of it all. She just about heard Port announce that the final team had been decided for the Singles Rounds of the Vytal Festival tomorrow, then she most definitely heard Oobleck telling everyone to leave in a calm and orderly fashion. There was so much to take in!  
To stop herself from collapsing, Pyrrha found a nice quiet section of the campus to lean down next to the wall – autumnal leaves systematically cascading down from the trees to be with her on the floor.

"Hey." Pyrrha turned her head up to see her smiling friend. She, however didn't feel in the right mood to exchange niceties, even with the boy she had developed feelings for. Look at him – he was honest and sweet and never saw her for anything else but a teammate and his partner. She turned her head away in shame. The blond's beam faded at seeing her still-tormented face, and looked to the far end of the building as Nora and Ren came around. Nora knew what was happening right as she saw it and dragged Ren away from the pair of them. He looked back to Pyrrha and took a seat next to her.  
"You were the first person to ever believe in me, you know that? Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?"

"I'm sure they didn't mean…" her sorrow became surprise, eyes widening as she realized Jaune's hand is placed upon hers. The warrior stared at her partner trying to gauge what to do – neither of them really know.

"I guess... I'm just trying to say that... you've always been there for me... even when I didn't deserve it. And I can tell there's something on your mind, so... I don't know. How can I help?" As her astonishment melted away into contentment, she leaned over and placed her head on a startled Jaune's shoulder, closing her eyes.

"You're already doing it." Jaune quickly matched Pyrrha's smile with his own, and the two stayed there for a long moment. This was want she wanted more than anything in the world. Jaune Arc had feelings towards her too, it was painfully obvious. I mean, look at the hands! A thousand Grimm could come flying at the pair of them and she felt like the world would just casually fall apart around them. "Jaune..." she wanted to confess everything to him right there – she was in love with him and she wanted them to be together, but as an additional autumn leaf joins the first, Pyrrha's expression darkens once more. "I don't know what to do." She retracted her hand from his in a slight panic at her conflicting emotions.

"W-What do you mean?" Pyrrha stares at him, reciting words that she had clearly gone through thousands of times before this one:

"Do you believe in destiny?" JNPR's leader was taken aback by the question, but rather than give a definitive answer he threw it back to his partner, citing that it depends on how you view it. "When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life... Well... what would you do if something came along that you... never expected? Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny?"

"Like what?"

"Or what if you could suddenly fulfil your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you were?" Jaune leaned over and attempted to place his hand on her shoulder.

"Pyrrha, you're not making any sense."

"None of it makes sense!" It was clear that she was on the verge of tears. "This isn't how things were supposed to happen!"

"I'm sorry! Please, I-I'm just trying to understand what's wrong."

Fighting back her feelings, the red head explained. "I've always felt as though I was destined to become a Huntress - to protect the world and it's become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But..." she turned to look at Jaune "I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course you can." Jaune brimming with confidence. "The Pyrrha Nikos I know would never back down from a challenge. And if you really believe it's your destiny to save the world... you can't let anything stand in your way." Despite Jaune's intentions, this didn't bring relief. But Pyrrha decided that beating around the bush wasn't going to do.

With tears welling up in her eyes once again, she stated to her partner as bluntly as she could muster: "Ozpin wants me to become the Fall Maiden."

"I'm sorry?"

"The Four Maidens protect the world and bring balance to it. One of them is dying through artificial means and is being kept alive as so that the powers can be transferred to another being with good intentions. They want me to be that person, become the Fall Maiden to keep the balance in the world." She paused not only to recall further what the four adults had described to her when she was with them, but also to gauge Jaune's reactions – it was fair to say he seemed all over the place about it. "Ozpin said that I needed to make a decision before the Festival was over, but that if I was to go through with it that while The Maidens do exist in the real world they exist only as stories and legends in the eyes of the normal citizens of Remnant... and that it was better if it was kept that way. He said that I would need to lose _all_ connections to the outside world," she took a step closer to her team leader, both socially inexperienced people filling up with something she was sure neither had felt before in another person "and so, Jaune – can you do something for me? Please?"

"Anything Pyrrha" he replied, almost breathlessly, his arms reaching out to embrace her.

"Will you help me make my decision?" she asked, face now wet with tears. Neither person responded with any words; they both knew the answer to Pyrrha's question before she even finished asking it. After a brief silence, both blue and green eyes shut as lips met. Jaune's arms hugged his partner's waist whilst her hands fell around his neck and the sensation that the pair of them felt could not be rivalled. Their lips were both soft and untouched, though Jaune did have the added 'pleasure' of having Pyrrha's lips partially coated in a fine layer of her own tears. There was nowhere either would rather be.

' _Well_ ' the warrior thought as she finally decided to part lips with her teammate and finishing her thought out loud. "I believe my mind has been made up Jaune." Pure joy traded places with worry on the young man's face as she uttered those words.

"Oh no; was I really that bad?" The red head just giggled at his innocence and wiped her tears away.

"No, Jaune. It was perfect." He smiled once again in relief as they resumed their kissing.

"And you owe me 50 Lien" Ren whispered semi-triumphantly.

"Oh, shut up! You'll ruin the moment!" Nora responded, hitting him as the pair of them continued staring at the new Team JNPR couple round the corner with cheeky smiles on their faces.

* * *

As the new couple strolled along the bay area hand-in-hand, the fiery orange light of the setting sun giving way to the deep soothing blue and sharp white of the moonlight, Pyrrha looked over at her partner-turned-boyfriend and saw that something seemed off. Her head rested on his shoulder as best it could whilst her free hand settled on his chest over his heart - a steady beat that seemed to hasten upon her actions. The warrior grinned as she realised that he cared for her so much; such a little action causing such a huge effect on someone so close was such a pleasant feeling for her, especially considering how much of her life prior to starting at Beacon was dictated by companies and sponsors. As a car drove past the couple, it's horn honking at something neither of them knew what, Pyrrha's mind jogged at a thought she had been meaning to tell her partner, something that should lift his mood greatly. She spoke, breaking the once blissful silence and causing her partner to look at her.

"Jaune, I think I found your semblance." The boy looked at her in excitement. A look, she thought, that was nearly identical to the one he first made when Weiss Schnee told him that she was on the Pumpkin Pete Cereal Boxes. "I must admit, I did sense it a couple of weeks ago when we were training on the roof, but my mind was otherwise occupied with helping you get tournament ready that I chose not to mention it at the time. Your Aura is strong and your semblance reflects that; it too is very powerful. We just need to unlock it." JNPR's team leader hugged his partner; finally realising that him falsifying the documents to get in here actually lead to something amazing - other than getting a girlfriend in the most popular girl in his year - he had found his Aura and now his semblance. His excitement dropped momentarily as he questioned,

"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I... didn't feel that it would be right in the tournament. It might have been a hindrance" The response caused the boy to raise an eyebrow. Surely, whatever his semblance is, it would have _benefitted_ team JNPR rather than _hindered_ it. As Jaune stood there clearly lacking the words to respond with, Pyrrha shut her eyes and let out a very forceful sigh before she continued. "I felt that if you knew what your semblance was and how to unlock it, you may have spent more time during the battle trying to focus on that rather than on the fight itself."

"Pyrrha," the blond boy rested his hand on her cheek as he looked at and reassured his partner, "I know I can be a little single-minded at times - heck, when I was into Weiss I did nothing _but_ focus on her. But nothing can ever distract me from what needs to be done; I'm an Arc, it's in our nature. I would never lose sight of my objective, especially in a fight." The reassuring glow of a smile from the young man eased the warrior's wandering mind as she placed her hand upon her boyfriend's once again, the pair walking along the same path they were before; although the mind of the girl felt at peace, her body grew slowly and slowly weaker, as if a leak had appeared in her soul that couldn't be repaired. The couple walked together in silence for another twenty minutes or so, slowly making their way back towards the school as the girl seemed to get increasingly less energetic as time progressed. They were roughly a street away from the main entrance when Pyrrha spoke again.

"Jaune, what went through your mind back in the Forever Fall?"

"I... uh... I don't follow Pyrrha. What'd you mean?"

"When we went to the Forever Fall, back when you and Cardin were... 'friends', what went through your mind? Piece by piece Jaune, I need to be clear on what to do next." They stopped walking as Jaune recalled what he felt back then.

"Well, for starters; I felt terrible. I had to abandon my partner and my team because CRDL had bullied me into doing their dirty work for them. I felt scared, because Cardin was going to make me throw a jar of sap at you and have you attacked by Rapier Wasps. I... felt a surge of bravery as I throw that jar at Cardin instead of you, then I instantly regretted it. When Cardin attacked me, I remember there being a blinding light as I think my Aura acted up and protected me from Cardin's punch..."

"There!" Pyrrha interrupted. "That is the moment Jaune. What do you remember feeling right at that very moment?" She leaned on her partner, who could tell that she wasn't just leaning because she was curious, she was leaning because she felt too weak to support herself on her own legs.

"Not now Pyrrha, it can wait for a few minutes. Now, I need to get you back to the dorm so that you can rest for the Singles Rounds; it could be your big fight tomorrow for all we know." While the Arc attempted to drag his girlfriend back to her bed, she instead planted her feet. She still had enough left in her to outmatch Jaune in strength, even if she was channelling what little Aura she had left into her muscles to do so. They stood opposed to one another almost confrontationally at over an arm's length away from one another.

"Jaune, I need to know. What were you thinking or feeling when Cardin attacked you?" Her voice cracked as she spoke, her Aura still steadily dropping to a dangerously low level and the fatigue showing in all aspects.

"Something about protecting you or something, I'm not sure. Look, can this wait? There is something off about you at the moment Pyrrha, you look weak and you look tired and I want you to get some rest so can we please just continue this conversation back in our room?" But as the blue eyed boy attempted to step towards the warrior, a soft hum and a dark glow started emanating from his armour and belt holding him in place. Pyrrha was using her semblance to hold the metal on Jaune, and by extension him, in that one spot. He looked at her with fear in his eyes as a pair of green ones looked back at his.

"Jaune, trust me now. Stay focussed on what you need to do. Remember how you felt back then." Fear made room for terror as the boy called out his girlfriend's name constantly, but in vain, as she walked into the road. As a van approached where she stood, Pyrrha reached into it with her semblance and held the two peddles where they needed to go. The girl looked at her partner with a smile before...

 **To be continued...**

* * *

Sorry to end this chapter on a cliff-hanger guys. I'm not a big fan of them myself, but I realised that I was little over half way through the chapter and I already had well over 3,000 words. So, to save it dragging on, I'm going to split this into separate chapters!  
I already had a decent portion of the other part planned out and written before I made my choice to split it, so expect it by the end of the week at the absolute latest.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated!


	6. - Powers Surface from Feeling Blue

Lei Ren and Nora Valkyrie lay on her bed back in the Team JNPR dorm room. Nora's right hand was taping away a rhythm onto the bed cloth, her left wrapped around and hugging Ren's shoulder. Ren's right arm hugged Nora's shoulder in return, his left draped over his stomach. They just lied there, the window open to keep the room feeling fresh and to let the natural light of a glorious sunset seep into the room, staring up at a single spot on the ceiling.

"I suppose you want to go to that All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Place, don't you?" Ren said, his head still focussing on the ceiling whilst his eyes glanced as far right as he could to look at Nora.

"Well, duh!" the orange haired girl replied. "This needs to be special; it's our five year anniversary!" Despite how outgoing Nora normally seems, she is very good at keeping a secret. Her best - that she and Ren were actually a couple and had been for the entire time that all their friends at Beacon knew them.

The pair had a very rough start in childhood. They were both orphans by the time they were seven years old and because of that event they have been inseparable since. The event even led Ren to discover his semblance, though it came with a slight side effect in that his emotions were slightly muted as well. They basically grew up as if they were each other's sibling they never had, and over the years feelings between the two of them grew to a head until one day when they were about eleven or so Nora asked Ren if they could be a couple. Being the person he was, and still is, Nora doubted that he would answer with a yes. But clearly he felt the same way - however it was meant to feel when two pre-teens started going out with one another. And yet there was no awkwardness between them, nor was there any real change. They continued as they had all those years prior, just with the added benefits of cuddling, 'friend'-dates to the movies when they had enough Lien to go and fact that the other would always be there for them, even though they both had said this anyway when they were kids and long before they were dating. They didn't kiss though, they tried it once and it just didn't feel right so they just avoided doing it altogether. "Besides, we've held off from doing it for a while now because of the tournament." Nora gasped in excitement as an idea flew into her brain. "We could go there the morning after it's done with everyone else and have Celebratory Pancakes!"

"So would we be able to tell everyone then that we are dating? Or are you still not ready?" Ren's head fully turned towards Nora, only to see her blush and look away. Most people would have assumed otherwise, but it was actually Nora who wanted to keep the relationship under wraps. She felt that if Glynda and Ozpin knew that they were dating then they would have tried their hardest to force them into separate groups to break up their relationship and force them to make new friends even though they have been each other's besties for nearly ten years and there was no way that they could do that to them because that would be cruel but life is cruel and... "Nora, I can tell you're rambling in your mind again." She stopped thinking as she realised that he was right, then turned to face the ceiling with him once again. Her arm gripped his shoulder tighter in comfort.

"You know how I feel about it Ren. But I guess then would be the perfect time to say..." she muttered in defeat. As a car horn echoed in through the open window, Nora's mind strayed from her current thoughts to that of the other couple sharing their space. "Pyrrha and Jaune are out later than I thought they'd be."

"I'll message them, see what they're doing." Ren reached his free hand into his pocket to retrieve his Scroll. Under a normal circumstance, he would have gone straight to Messaging and he would have messaged Jaune and/or Pyrrha asking where they were or whether they were coming back anytime soon, but this time his gut told him to check Team Aura first. Ren always made a habit of checking Team Aura regularly - less so during the Festival as most of the competing teams' Scrolls were disconnected from that during the fights, but were always reconnected roughly fifteen minutes after the day's fights had ended. And as luck would have it, he was glad that he did. An audible intake of air caught the attention of the orange haired girl, so she rolled onto her side and basically rolled onto her teammate so that she could look too. Her response was equally as shocked as she saw what he did - Pyrrha's Aura dropping very steadily.

This was a time of relative peace on Remnant, there were no major wars happening - what fighting did happen was normally only minor scuffles being held nowhere near Beacon. And no competing teams were due to go out on any missions at all. Even if they were, the _entire_ team would have been notified and not just a select few within them. During relaxation and down-time, an Aura will naturally recharge itself at a steady rate, generally recovering itself from a low level of about 20% to full in about four hours or so, less with the right techniques such as meditation - a method Yatsuhashi seems to favour above all else - and even less with a medicinal Aura Shot, though those were generally reserved for extreme circumstances where a person is having difficulty regenerating their Aura naturally. So the realisation from the couple that there must be something dreadfully wrong came without a moments hesitation.

"We've gotta go!" Nora's voice echoed the worry that she clearly felt; the pair were already on their feet as she finished her sentence and were out the door before they knew it.

"I'll try to ping a location from their Scrolls, we should get to them as soon as we can." The magenta eyes of the boy darted down to the little screen as he split it down the middle to show both Maps and Team Aura simultaneously. He found the couple's location and was relieved to know that they were heading towards the school, but looking over at the other half of the screen he saw that Pyrrha's aura seemed to be falling at an alarmingly steady pace, 1% roughly every sixteen seconds. They had to move fast, her life could be in danger - it had already dropped to 76% from 93% when they left the room. "Nora, get our lockers to land right at the end of the pathway here." He showed her the map and pointed out where he wanted them to land. Ren was extremely good with spacing and direction, that's why they never seemed to get lost when he was around. He knew that where he asked for the lockers to land would mean that they could just continue running towards Pyrrha and Jaune without the need for stopping.

"Right!" the girl grinned, excited about the action but absolutely petrified for her friends' safety on the inside. She input two numbers onto her Scroll and dotted on the Map where they were to land. Lo and behold, as the pair ran along the courtyard two metal containers rocketed down from the sky and landed in front of them, doors swinging open to reveal Magnhild and StormFlower.

The boy looked at his scroll before they got to the lockers; 26% aura and still falling. They grabbed their respective weapons on the run, neither of them really stopping at all to collect them.

And they kept on running.

Not even two minutes later, he looked again at his scroll, eyes widening in a panic not many had seen him in before - 18%!

"Nora, they're just on the next street!" The pair ran like they had never ran before, hearing cries of panic as they approached the street, their teammate's name being called out by another familiar voice.

"Jaune!" the girl cried, as the pair tapped into their Aura reserves to keep them going. They unsheathed their weapons, ready to combat whatever was hurting their friends. But as the two turned the corner, a scene that they and the rest of Team JNPR shall never forget played out before them.

* * *

The red head stood in the middle of the road as a van came charging into her at what seemed like full pelt. A red crackle of glass-like electricity came from her body as the remaining 17% of her Aura was completely depleted in that single blow. Jaune stumbled forward as the magnetic bond on his armour was severed as instantly as the vehicle made contact with his girlfriend's now-limp body. The usually bubbly Nora shrieked in terror as she hid her head in Ren's chest, the boy instinctively hugging her tight so that she wouldn't try to bear witness to what was happening. He, however, watched the rest of this thing play out step by step in painstakingly slow motion.

At first, Pyrrha travelled a few metres with the van, her body flat across the hood. But as the driver gained control of the vehicle once again braking hard and fast, her body flew from its position straight onto the floor, momentum carrying it on its way. Each time the warrior's body made contact with the ground, the only things Ren heard were the scraping of metal against concrete and the distinct crunching of bones as the forces they were being put under caused them to either excessively moan from the pressure or snap all together inside of her. That sound brought back many painful memories for both the black and orange haired orphans - it was the sound that _thing_ made the night they found each other.

There must have been at least four full tumbles before Pyrrha came to a complete stop, her head cracked open and leaving a very distinctive red streak on the dark grey road she once was standing on, her limbs still facing the directions they should but cut and bruised to the point where her usually pale skin was more blood red and bruised purple than it was its normal colour. The remaining members of JNPR stood in a shocked silence for far longer than it seemed they should have before the two boys screamed out their teammate's name in unison and sprinted towards the body. Ren was the first to get there, his hands quickly finding their way to the side her neck and forehead, his ears placed inches above her mouth as he kneeled there in silence. Jaune got there next, quickly hugging Nora and asking the final member of the team to make sure that he wasn't dreaming and that he would be as okay as his body would allow him.

"There is a pulse, and she is still breathing!" The two students with blue hued eyes sighed in relief that she wasn't dead, "but they are both very weak. She could die." Jaune instinctively pushed Ren out of the way, cradling his weak, borderline lifeless girlfriend's broken body.

"Pyrrha..." he managed with tears flowing down his face like rivers. "Why, Pyrrha? What was there to prove?" The boy sobbed as he was taken back forty seven seconds to just before the crash.

 _Jaune, trust me now. Stay focussed on what you need to do. Remember how you felt back then_.

Pyrrha's voice echoed through his mind constantly, like a guilty conscience. The words haunted him forever, those five seconds playing on a never ending loop inside his brain.

"You didn't have to do this Pyrrha..."

 _Stay focussed on what you need to do. Remember how you felt back then_.

Ren tried to approach his team leader, but Nora reached out and held his hand, keeping him from approaching the obviously shocked Arc.

"I don't want to lose you now, I've just got you and I can't lose you!"

 _Remember how you felt back then_.

A crowd began to form around the two, some onlookers standing there with nothing but horrified expressions and offering nothing to aid. Others trying their hardest to phone for any form of emergency service to come and take the badly injured girl they recognised from the Vytal Tournament away.

"I can't live without you Pyrrha..."

 _Remember_

Jaune's eyes widened as he remembered what Pyrrha had said to him, as he recalled what he had thought and felt back at the Forever Fall, and as he realised what she was trying to do all along.

"Everyone, get back!" he yelled, authority flowing from him. He nodded to his teammates, who helped keep the crowd at a decent distance so that he had a little bit of room around him. "Pyrrha... I remember what I was thinking back at the Forever Fall! And I know what to do with that now." The boy lay her on the floor in what seemed to be a show of defeat, but instead he splayed his palms open wide and pointed them down to the fast fading potential Fall Maiden. His body began to glow with an awesome white light as his Aura radiated from him. Nora stood back aghast - Jaune Arc had finally found his semblance and, from what she could see now, it looked _awesome!_ The white light wormed its way from all around the body down into his palms, collecting there with a brightness that even the Sun would have trouble rivalling.

Without much thought other than what he believed was the right thing to do, Jaune lowered his hands onto Pyrrha Nikos just as she had done when his Aura was first unlocked by her - with one hand on her chest above her heart and the other on her cheek. The blond closed his eyes and pictured exactly what he needed to picture, a strong memory only he needed to know about and pressed down hard where his hands were currently resting. The light left Jaune's hands, plunging the circle of people into darkness once again. But just as fast as it disappeared the light glowed from the body of the warrior, enveloping her in its majesty.

As the light dissipated, all that was left was a physically drained young man and a perfectly healthy young woman taking in a deep breathe as if it was the first one she had ever taken. There was no scratches, no cuts, nothing wrong with her - it looked like she had just fallen asleep on the road. "Jaune!" The couple on the floor were quick to share a passionate kiss as some of the crowd clapped and cheered for the safety of the girl, as crowds often tend to do. Ren and Nora ran in and hugged the other pair, the adrenaline from getting here wearing off and the exhaustion setting in. Ren looked at his Scroll one last time to see whether it was still keeping track of everyone; there was Pyrrha Nikos, essentially back from the dead with her Aura sitting at a comfortable 97%. His, Nora's and Jaune's were a little worse for wear at around the 60% mark, but at least they were all together and safe.

 **To be concluded...**

* * *

Holy shit, I never even realised how massive this sub-story was going to be! Well, so massive that this gets a third part!  
I know some of y'all want the entire chapter in its completed state, but I decided that rather than a 7,500+ word fustercluck of a chapter, three smaller and more easily manageable chapters would work better. Plus, it means less mistakes on my part and less inconsistencies to boot.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	7. A Semblance of Happiness

After paramedics had made their way to the scene and gave everyone the once over and all clear, and after Pyrrha had transferred roughly 1,400 Lien to the driver for wrecking his van, JNPR made its way back to the dorm room in silence. It was a decent walk by anyone's standard but the awkwardness in the team after that whole fiasco was evident even to an onlooker. The girl who, ten minutes prior, could have be classed as dead led the four back to the room, arms hugging her body in shame as she closed herself off from everyone. The orphans settled in the middle of the pack, looking at each other and trying to converse without ever opening their mouths, until Nora dropped back and walked with her very spaced out team leader at the back of the group. Upon arriving back in their room, the door wasn't even shut for five seconds before Jaune turned to his partner and the inevitable question left his lips.

"Pyrrha... what the hell was that all about?!" Ren and Nora turned their heads the girl as well, awaiting the answer. The red haired girl looked at the floor in shame, content with remaining silent until they gave up. That was before she realised that none of the other three people in the room were doing anything until the truth came out.

"I figured out Jaune's semblance roughly two weeks ago, but I realised that he needed something to trigger a reaction in his head that would allow him to access it."

"So, you put your life in danger?" Jaune questioned with an air of aggressiveness. The other two realised that the love birds needed to have their first argument without interruption, so they glanced at each other with a look of 'Let's stay quiet and let them deal with it amongst themselves' and just sat on Ren's bed observing from afar. "Was there really any need to do that?"

"I felt that there was no other real way..."

"Really? No other possible, _safer_ way to get my semblance working. I doubt that... speaking of, what even is my semblance?"

"I…" the question threw the girl who, under most normal circumstances, would be able to come up with the right answer to the question – all those years in the limelight really do give you a taste for knowing what the 'right' answer is. But now, she stood here with no answer, not even a possible inclination as to what an answer might be: she had nothing. "It is very difficult to explain what I was thinking."

"Then try" Jaune responded, the persona he was trying to put on as someone angry at their partner cracking and the usual, nice-guy Arc nature seeping through. Green eyes lifted to look at blue before a long breath was taken and her thoughts were vocalised.

"When we were first being put into teams, you got hit in the face with a tree branch." The blond mumbled under his breath, clearly hating how the first part of the story involves him being awkward and in peril. "When I asked why you didn't use your Aura, you didn't really know what it was. So, I unlocked it for you. There was a lot of it Jaune, and you instantly healed that little cut on your cheek, faster than I have ever seen even such a simple cut be healed before. I will be completely honest, it intrigued me and I was happy that I was your partner, because this would mean I could try to figure out why you displayed such a high level of Aura and such a possible potent semblance. When we were at the Forever Fall and you were hit by Cardin, you thought and felt something that caused your semblance to show itself – even only for that split instant, but it was there. Of course, judging by how Cardin's hand was in bandages for the next few days, I assume that you had no control and it just overused itself in that moment, bouncing back the damage you would have received and hurting Cardin instead of yourself. And then when we were on the roof training and working on Burst Focussing of Aura so that you could expend as little as you could protecting yourself from each and every blow _if_ the need arose, I felt that with every misstep you made the Aura deep inside you – your potential semblance – grew stronger with every hit. Then it dawned on me, your semblance is much like Yang's, in the sense that it grows whenever you are hit. But unlike hers, your semblance doesn't manifest itself as an aggressive force, but rather a more passive one."

"That's great and all Pyrrha," Jaune said, "but you still haven't actually answered my question. What is my semblance?" The red head composed herself, her talking buying her enough time to think about the question she was originally asked and answer with a definitive answer.

"I believe that your semblance, is Healing."

"Healing…" the boy responded, simultaneously pleased that he had an answer to a question that had been floating around like a bad smell and disappointed that the answer he got was something mundane like Healing. "Alright. But how is it like Yang's semblance?"

"As I mentioned," the girl continued, finally taking a seat on the bed "you both can take a hit that raises your semblance. But Yang has had many years of practice and knows what her semblance is and what it can do, so she is very comfortable with it. She can dish out twice as much damage as she takes – very useful in a fight, but only if she aims it right. If she misses, then it could be game over for her." The boy nodded, aware of the blonde brawler's powers and the risk that she nonchalantly carries on her shoulders. "You can take a hit, but instead will hurt you. The sensation remains inside you. Much like a reservoir, it will build and build and can be called upon when the time comes. It seems to me that because you spent most of your younger life surrounded by your sisters you never needed to find out what your Aura could do, nut every fight helped start filling that pool deep inside you. Your body seems to naturally cover itself when it comes to small things, that is why little cuts seem to heal nearly instantaneously with you, and why it takes you so much less time than the rest of us to recover your Aura even with next to no practice."

"That is true" the orange haired girl said, her bubbly tones breaking the monotony of the duel person conversation.

"I, too, had always thought about this" the quiet boy added.

"Alright, yeah. I see that." The team leader stared at his partner, pain still in his eyes even though his heart seemed like it had forgiven. "But why did you need to run yourself over with a van?"

"Well… I needed you to… use your semblance in an extreme yet controlled situation to… um… to get you to understand it better…" The uncertainty in what she was saying was apparent to everyone in the room, herself included. Jaune got up from his bed and crossed the room to sit next to his partner. He put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch uneasily. He retracted knowing full well that right now she needed verbal comforting rather than physical.

"Pyrrha, that's not the real reason, is it?" The proud warrior sat there, tears welling up in her eyes, hands clenched into fists and resting on her legs. She shook her head, admitting to the part truth she had just said – what she spoke was truth, but it wasn't the biggest reason she had done what she had. He asked again, "Why did you need to run yourself over Pyrrha?" The emotions started flowing as the reasons came with it.

"My whole life up until arriving at Beacon, I was held upon a pedestal with people always looking up to me and always inspiring to be like me. So, to make things 'better' for me, they pushed me into getting a relationship back when I was fourteen. It was so that my sponsors could show that 'Pyrrha Nikos can be as powerful as she is and yet still have enough time on the side to pursue a relationship' and to stop people dedicating their lives solely to training. This boyfriend of mine was friendly at first but over time his actions became... abusive. I don't know whether that was what he was being told to do or whether that was just the person he was in real life, but he was abusive nonetheless. In public, he would be nice and loving where he could be but at the end of the day emotional scars were made and the damage was done. I broke up with him after three months because I couldn't take it any longer, but the damage was still done. His actions have been plaguing my every waking moment for the past three and a half years, which is why I never voiced my feelings for anyone." The crying warrior looked over at Nora, who knew full well what scenario she was talking about with her.

"Sorry…" the turquoise eyed girl whispered, ashamed of what she tried to get Pyrrha to do when she didn't know the whole story.

"It's okay Nora, I forgive you. You didn't know, none of you did and back then I wasn't ready to tell anyone." The warrior cleared her tears before continuing, fresh tears already appearing quickly after the first lot were gone. "When Ozpin called me to his Office, he along with General Ironwood, Glynda and Ruby's Uncle all asked me if I was willing to become the next Fall Maiden – a title I have preliminarily accepted." Turquoise and magenta eyes widened and mouths dropped as the rest of team JNPR heard the information for the first time. Unable to form a decent response, they remained silent and listened in intently. "But I realised soon after that once again I was being put on a pedestal – I would be transformed into a symbol of balance and hope for the entirety of Remnant for the rest of my life, but at the cost of my friends, family and life as I knew it. And then Jaune," teary green eyes turned to look at the face of her partner, "when you held my hand and we kissed I felt that there was something genuine there, there was a feeling that I had never felt before and I was happy that I felt it with you. But no sooner had I come off that high, the thoughts and doubts brought about by my ex came back into my mind and it was all too much for me." She leaned it and proceeded to sob into Jaune's Pumpkin Pete hoodie, a sure-fire indicator to Jaune that he could reciprocate the affection. "I hit myself with the van because I needed to see you get a hold of your semblance, but also as a hard reset to clear everything from my head. If I couldn't be saved, then that would be the end - I wouldn't have to suffer with the thoughts anymore. I wouldn't have to have his words gnawing at my every waking thought. And…" the girl paused between sobs to compose herself – she had never thought she would get to a point in her life so soon where she felt like she could speak these words. "And because I wasn't sure if you loved me Jaune."

"Pyrrha. You…"

"I didn't want another scenario where I was being emotionally abused by someone who I was meant to be close to, so in the state that I was I felt that if I just ended it I would never have to experience it again. But if you loved me, you'd do whatever it took to get me back. And then I'd know. But I would have been happy either way..."

"Pyrrha, you do not ever need to worry about anybody not loving you. I do. I love you very much Pyrrha. Ren and Nora love you. Team RWBY loves you too. As your friends, as your team," Jaune held Pyrrha's shaking hand as he finished, "as your boyfriend: you are loved, Pyrrha Nikos, for you. Don't ever forget that. Killing yourself over something that happened a long time ago is not massively uncommon, I know that much. But imagine everything that you would have left behind just because in one brief moment you decided that would be the only solution to your problems? We would have been a teammate down for the rest of our time here, and we would have all lost someone very close to our hearts." Pyrrha still doubted what she was being told, she'd had so many things promised to her when she was younger and yet she still doubted - that train of thought never really left her. But all the blond had to do was open his arms, smile his genuine smile at her and say the words "Come here" before she realised that he meant it. The four of them all shared a hug together, the show of companionship removing all seeds of doubt scattered in the warrior's mind.

"Thank you" she said, face sporting a teary smile and her mind finally at peace. The team parted and made their way to their own bunks to get rested for the next day's events. Pyrrha grabbed her boyfriend's hand before they went to sleep and kissed him tenderly. She was content and she was at ease with her team once more.

"I want you to know Jaune, I have never been happier than I am right now. I appreciate everything that you have done for me."

"That's alright Pyrrha, I wouldn't do any of this if I didn't truly mean it." The boy smiled and went to his bed, sleeping within minutes due to lack of energy from such an exciting end to the day. The red haired girl lay atop her bed, eyes open and mind assured.

"I know what I want to do. The title of Fall Maiden is not for me." She turned her head to look at the blond boy sleeping in the bed beside her, "I've got too much to lose now." And with that, green eyes slid shut as she fell into a peaceful sleep, the type that she hadn't had for a very long time.

* * *

Wow, that was a wild ride. The last three chapters originally started out as just the 'Destiny' scene - a short 1,300 word mini-chapter, but I kept thinking of more and more ideas that branched from that and now we've got three 2,500+ chapters all dedicated to this one sub-story. Thank you for sticking it out with me and waiting patiently for it to end.  
I am aware that there are some **very** hard hitting subjects in these chapters, none of which I personally have gone through - but I know people who have and still are going through these types of scenarios and these thoughts go through their heads everyday. So I ask you, if you are thinking like this or you know someone who is - seek help. Thank you

Expect the normal story to resume... eventually

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	8. Repercussions

"Ladies and Gentlemen, meet your Quarter-Finalists!" The crowd was packed near to bursting point as thousands of people cheered and whooped at the eight students standing in a line in the centre of the floating stadium. "These combatants have truly proved themselves, fighting vigorously through the previous rounds to make it to this stage."

"That's right Barty; these students have proved that they are the best their respective academies had to offer, so for those who are just joining us, let's meet them."

"Indeed, let's Peter! Representing Team…"

Mercury stood there, waiting for this whole introduction bullshit to be over with. He knew that he was going to be fighting the blonde bimbo in the first fight, then he could get out of this hellhole. But for a professor hyped up on coffee, the man could drag on something fierce. He had to be honest, he would have zoned right out were it not for the fact that he was next in line.

"… Mercury Black representing Haven Academy!" The silver haired teenager stepped forward to wave at the crowd that later that day would most likely rip him apart if they knew about his involvement in the catastrophe that would unfold around them. "And third in the line…" and _that_ was his cue to zone out once again. He stood there, waiting… and waiting… and waiting… and oh, for fuck's sake you irritating old men - hurry up! He grew bored of being bored, that was how long he felt like waited. But eventually the Randomizer appeared in the sky and he was finally ready to prepare for his fight.

"Our first fight for the quarter finals is…" the spinning wheel of destiny stopped on the faces of, "Yang Xiao Long from Beacon versus Mercury Black from Haven!" Off in the crowd, whilst most audience members cheered for their first fight of the Finals, Coco and Velvet looked at each other in a bewildered shock – what Emerald had said during the Doubles Round was right. The second year pair searched the entire stadium for the mint haired girl who relayed that information to them – well, to Coco who then relayed it to Velvet – but there were so many people that stadium that there would be no chance to find her among the technicolour rainbow of crowd, so they stop looking but keep their wits about them, this could spell disaster.

As the other six quarter-finalists left the arena to wait patiently on the side lines, Mercury could make out the rest of the bimbo's infuriating team screaming out her name and wishing her good luck. Honestly, he couldn't give two shits about 'luck'. Cinder and Emerald finding him and taking him on as an accomplice wasn't 'luck' – they were there for his father, but he'd murdered the asshole literally three minutes before they made their way through the tree line towards the burning remains of the Black household. Him getting his new legs wasn't 'luck', his old man nearly shattered them when they fought and, whilst he could have had them repaired in a matter of months he _chose_ to augment and replace his legs with cybernetics. There would be no 'luck' in her winning this fight – it would go exactly as it was planned. Yang smiled at him, thinking nothing of bad of this.

"You better not go easy on me."

"You wish" he retorted with a dark laugh. Both brawlers faced the crowds one last time, then slowly started advancing on each other, arms raised defensively until their hands almost touched, as the final countdown commences. Professor Port broke through the cheers of the crowd and the pre-fight tension like a Battle Axe through a Nevermore hide.

"Three! Two! One! Begin!"

No sooner had the moustached man finished speaking, Yang threw a punch and Mercury spun his foot to meet, creating a shockwave between the weapons that launched him back. He closed the distance quickly and aimed at her feet with his boot, but the brawler leapt over it and fired off a shot of her Ember Celica that he rotated to avoid. They fought fist-to-fist for a moment, each punch backed by determination and the willingness to end the fight fast. The girl managed to get a fiery blast on her opponent, but at the cost of him also landing a blow on her. She fell back on her feet when Mercury shot himself into the air to get farther away from her, looking up and smiling.

'Okay,' he thought 'just need to exhaust her a little more.'

Yang didn't relent for a second, opting instead to launch shot after shot at Mercury from afar. It didn't take much effort for him to dodge each of those shots though, sliding around the stage on clouds of air until he eventually attempted to come down on her with his leg. She blocked and pushed away the attack, but he went under her shotgun burst and managed to land a heavy kick on her. Though she still landed in a crouch, that attacked hurt. She grimaced in pain then launched forward, golden mane flowing behind her as continued landing blow after blazing blow on him; to end this onslaught of punches Mercury roundhouse kicked her in the back and attempted to hit her with his heel. Fortunately for her she got out just in time and attempted to hit him once more, only for the agile man to leap over and twirled to get a hit on her, her own attack smashing into the ground instead of its intended target. One of his kicks seemed to pass over her, but in an instant, he brought his second foot down hard enough to shatter the steel underneath the pair of them – an attack which Yang narrowly rolled backward to avoid. They exchanged kicks after this attack until Mercury hit her backwards and rushed forward only to receive a fist to his chin, then his torso, knocking him on his stomach.

'Oh, you've done it now, bitch!'

He got up right as Yang started raining down fire again, causing him to somersault back until one explosion caused him to get knocked from the stage. Gasps came the audience as some in attendance believed this to be the admittedly anti-climactic end to the start of the Singles Rounds. But the Haven student fired his boots downward and few back in front of his enemy, unleashing a series of kicks that she deflected with her arms much to the crowd's excitement. She ducked under one attack only to receive another as Mercury jumped into the air to knock her back, following it up with a shot from his boots. Yang avoided it effortlessly, not noticing it still hanging around behind her.

Switching tactics, Mercury starts shooting his foot out in every direction, each kick into the air accompanied by a silvery blast that were barely even aimed at the brawler. She dodged each one coming her way and got in close through the circling barrage of shots, fighting with their fists again until Mercury kicked her into the air and knocked her right back to the ground, followed by the dozens of swirling shots that now converged right on to Yang.

When the blasts stopped coming down on his opponent, the boy rose from his crouch and outwardly grinned to himself, dusting off his outfit and seeming as happy as can be. But with a fleeting glance up at the screen he saw that there was still some Aura reserve left in the girl. Good, the plan still needed to go ahead and it couldn't exactly do that if he'd won just now. Like many a typical cartoon that lots of people watched on their lazy mornings, as the smoke cleared from behind him a scream came from it as it erupted into flames, hastening its thinning. His momentary shock turned into another smile as he turns around to see a red-eyed Yang slam her knuckles together and run at him. The blonde landed a punch that sent him back, so he retaliated with a kick. But she rushed up again and avoided that kick, and the next and each kick that followed – even taking one square on with no effect to her momentum. With each missed strike by him, the girl pounded at him with an unrelenting bombardment of left-right blows. With one blow, he had enough time to let out a pained groan before she hit him in the stomach, his Aura sparkling up to try and defend him from the last hit to the face by the upset blonde. He landed on his back as the buzzer sounds over the roars of the audience.

"What a way to kick off the Finals!"

"Yang Xiao Long wins!" Yang lowered her fists and closed her red eyes, breathing a sigh of relief before opening them back up to her usual lilac and raising her arm in victory. Through the crowd, she managed to catch her sister shouting praises at her, arms splayed in excitement, the ice queen pumping her fist and Blake giving a standing ovation. The buxom blonde smiled at the Faunus knowing full well her face couldn't be seen, wiped her brow with an arm and addressed the hunched-over Mercury.

"Better luck next time." She turned and started walking to the exit. With heavy breathes, he waited. With each passing moment, he realised that nothing was happening – the brawler had won and she was walking away. His mind, previously waiting on a sharp pain in his leg to flood his every nerve, was instead filled with rage. He lifted himself off the floor and ran to the medical bay, pushing past his former opponent aggressively. Upon arriving in one of the ships he was greeted by two nurses; one with fiery eyes and the other with magenta which, after a long and deliberate blink, returned to their usual pink and brown.

"Why are you walking in here?" the taller nurse asked, a question that the shorter one couldn't voice but was clearly asking all the same. "What happened?"

"Nothing – that's what fucking happened!" Mercury snapped back with clenched fists, lowering his head after he realised he had shouted at his boss. Anger flowing from every word, he continued. "The plan didn't work Cinder; Emerald clearly couldn't go through with it. I lost to that bitch and all we have to show for it is the fact that _she_ is moving on to the Semi-Finals! If Emerald had just…" as he spoke her name, the mint haired girl came into the ship, automatic doors shutting behind her and sealing the four of them off from the rest of the world. Cinder made a beeline for the girl. "Speak of the Devil and she shall appear!"

"Mercury, I…" her excuse was cut short by a slap across the face by the ringleader. The mute woman went to go help her friend out, but halted her reaction as she remembered that the pair of them were hanging dangerously close to the edge of a cliff neither of them would ever be able to climb back out of.

"What do you think you are playing at?" the tattooed woman questioned, her voice piercing through Emerald like an arrow and frightening her to the core. "You had one simple task and you failed. Without that, the Grimm in Mountain Glenn will not have anything to respond to. There is not a single thing we can do anymore to cause a surge in negative emotions. You have caused no end of mishaps and this one is the worst." Mercury recalled the times when his 'partner' had done something akin to this in the past. Times where she had put her emotions first and jeopardised their entire operation because she had a bad feeling about something. Times where afterwards he would talk to Cinder without her around and beg her to let him kill her and be done with all her moral questions, and how she refused him his request time and time again because 'when the time comes, she will not fail us.' And how he wished he could see Cinder's face now, it was probably scowling at the dark-skinned girl with regret at how many times she had potentially saved her life from an untimely and gruesome death by his boots only to have the soul reason for her to keep breathing and be part of this team be thrown away like an unwanted toy. How she must feel knowing that this could have been stopped month prior with a simple order and a swift heel to the cranium.

" _She_ will not be pleased with what you have done."

That phrase struck fear into all but Cinder's souls and sent shivers down all but Cinder's spine. _She_ was Cinder's boss; the person pulling the strings of the person pulling their strings. Mercury's posture improved, understanding her authority over him even when she wasn't present. The ice cream themed girl's eyes flashed a ghostly white in fear as she once again glanced over at her only friend on the 'team', whose red eyes filled with tears of terror at the mere mention of the person in charge. The soft-spoken woman walked past everyone and left the medical ship, stripping off her nurse's uniform as she did to reveal her usual red dress to the world. Before leaving, she turned and spoke to Mercury and Neo with every intent on Emerald hearing what was being said.

"Fly out of the city and do not return until it is done. Head towards the north-east portion of Mountain Glenn and drop her off; make sure to leave her weapons on the ship though, I want her to suffer as she has to fight through a horde Grimm unarmed. Be sure to take pictures – I want to see how she struggled." The woman looked at the girl, who had long since fallen to her knees in terror. "You are no longer needed, so you will be disposed of. And I'm sure you had _so many_ friends that were going to miss you too" she finished sarcastically. Her voice returned to it's usual matter-of-fact tone. "I have my own business to attend to." The metallic doors slid shut – this would be the last time Cinder Fall would ever see the waste of space in person again; the next time they would be seen by the other, one would be lying dead on the ground, agony and pain their last companions in this life. Emerald looked helplessly at Neo, who looked back with no way to express how she felt through just body language or facial expressions. Mercury walked to the controls, started the vehicle up with an evil smirk and took to the skies. With fates long since sealed, the three of them flew away from The 40th Vytal Festival – a celebration of life and harmony in Remnant – to end the life of one who should never have been trusted. And that is what scared them.

* * *

As promised, we [finally] have some real action. I tried my best to recreate how the actual fight between Yang and Mercury played out as best as I could in word format and I think it came out pretty well. And the best part, y'all get more like it next chapter!

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	9. The Right Choice

As the day progressed, the fights got more and more interesting. The hooded boy from Shade Academy defeated the Atlas Student by tricking him into falling off the edge of the ring – whilst he was a capable fighter he had never faced an Atlas Team before this round and knew from the get-go that he was no match for the military style training and tactics that the other boy had, therefore wit was his only advantage.

The Cowboy from Haven fought Sun and kept the Faunus on his toes. He told Sun as their fight was starting that his semblance meant that he grew in strength as the Sun reached its apex and he even offered the Vacuo boy a chance to step away, as he had already won due to the time of their fight starting near the middle of the day. The battle was heavily in the Haven Sharpshooter's favour for the first minutes as time advanced. But as the fight drew on past High Noon, the other guy's power dwindled and Sun gained the upper hand and finished him with a kick to the chest that knocked his Aura down below 15%, eliminating Haven Academy's chances of a Semi-Final bout.

"…which leaves us with our final match of the day! Penny Polendina of Atlas versus Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon!" Down in the arena, Pyrrha looked at her opponent with confidence – she had a good fight on her hands and, on top of that, she had a task she needed to complete once this was done. Penny politely saluted her opponent, hands on her hips in excitement.

"Sal-u-tations, Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honour to finally meet you!"

"It's nice to finally meet you too."

"This is going to be so much fun!" Penny beamed widely in anticipation as Pyrrha readied herself, Miló and Akoúo̱ already in hand. As General Ironwood calmly sat to observe the fight from the stands, Nora, Ren and Jaune cheering for their teammate while Ruby watched a little anxiously, being probably the only person in the arena who knew about both Pyrrha's semblance and Penny's origins and knowing what that could mean if things went wrong, Oobleck began the countdown.

"3, 2, 1... BEGIN!"

Suddenly, the bow wearing girl was surrounded by her floating swords, gesturing them around to her command before launching a volley of them at her opponent, who ran towards them and leapt though them, deflecting each aimed blade that she couldn't avoid. The swords flew into the air until they turned around and came back to the fight. Pyrrha twirled her javelin around to block each sword swipe of Penny's, but dropped her weapon when she had to somersault away after being hit by a slash. For a normal fighter, having their weapon being so far away from them usually spelled disaster, but the girls on the battlefield now never had that worry. As one fighter magnetically returned her weapon to her hand, the other brought hers back on their literal strings to her and surrounded herself with them, ready for another volley. Port broke through the excitement of the crowd to add his own feelings to the table.

"My word! What a tremendous display by Miss Polendina!" Fully glowering, Pyrrha rushed forward and jumped on an incoming sword in a display of both athleticism and accuracy, swinging down on Penny only to have the assault halted by a collection of blades. She jumped away from the retaliatory slice as Penny backed away as well only to send more swords shooting towards the red haired girl. Try as she might to defend against the multitude of swords with the length of her weapon, she was being forced back regardless, prompting her to roll the shield from her back onto her arm with her polarity. Nora encouraged her teammate from the audience with her arms wide in glee.

"Whoo, yeah! Goooo Pyrrha!" she cheered, almost verging on chanting were it not for Ren grabbing her arm and calming her excitement momentarily.

Despite the cheers, Pyrrha isn't doing as well as she had hoped, looking up to see her Aura energy level lying significantly lower than her opponent's. Pyrrha spun wildly as she deflected and dodged each sword, until she got close enough to Penny to deliver a few slashes with the spear, sending her flying back. Sliding to a stop and making a new series of motions, the stringed weapons folded up until Penny was circled by several laser rifles, a few of which opened fire on the approaching champion. Pyrrha avoided the blasts and fought off the remaining swords until she slid into a position to charge at Penny and knock her back. Pyrrha straightened with a victorious grin that disappeared into dizziness upon seeing the ginger girl rocketing forward, weapons firing behind her like a jetpack so she can leap into the air, then come down like an energized meteor on her opponent.

Rolling back to her feet, the green-eyed girl didn't expect a sword to knock her shield off, then another to do the same for her blade. She tried to get the latter back with her magnetism, but instead had to use the power to send a flying sword back at Penny's side. It disappeared behind Penny, only for the Atlas-made girl to grin and raise her arms as several more appear above her, aimed to strike. The warrior crossed her arms in front of her and braced one of her legs, signalling to the opposition to attack. As swords flew towards her, Pyrrha forced her arms open sending out a small wave of a magnetic burst forcing the swords to her sides and knocking Penny back slightly, though why that happened Pyrrha did not originally know. The girl ran forward, calling her weapons to her arms once more. Unable to get her own weapons back in time, the sea green eyes of Penny widened as she held her hands up to catch the attack of her adversary. The force of the catch could be seen from the crowd as a wave of dust escaped the area around the fighters.

The pair held the struggle for a couple of seconds before Pyrrha realised something about Penny, something that had seemed off about her at first that finally made sense. A gasp escaped from the girl as she looked at the girl opposite her.

"Penny?" The struggle didn't shift as both girls stared at one another in confusion; one at who – or rather what, as she now thought about it – she was facing, the other at the fact that this person may have just discovered what she really is. Pyrrha relented slightly and Penny forced her away, calling her weapons to her aid once again. Curious, the red head held her shield up so that she could hide her hand from the crowd. She focussed on the feeling she had just experienced and looked up only to see a very large and dark glow shining around the entire body of Penny Polendina. In that instant, her feelings were confirmed – Penny was a robot of some sort, a girl made entirely of metal. Her honour and moral code kicking in, Pyrrha slid her weapons onto her back, closed her eyes, forcefully exhaled and walked towards her opponent who, much like the rest of the arena was in shock at what was happening. As the warrior approached, a buzzer sounded as Pyrrha Nikos' Aura dropped below 15% – eliminating her from the Vytal Festival.

"What a spectacular scene; it seems that Pyrrha Nikos has forcefully expended her Aura and has essentially forfeited the match against Miss Polendina!" Oobleck exclaimed, still trying to wrap his own head around the girl's reasoning. But now was not the time for his thoughts to be voiced, he had a job to do. "The favourite of the tournament has been eliminated, Penny Polendina from Atlas wins!" The applause and cheers from the crowd were most definitely there, but they were slow to start and filled with uncertainty – should they be clapping? In the end, the people clapped and cheered as they did any other match.

"That concludes the last of today's fights. Be sure to come back tomorrow as we will have the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final of the 40th Bi-Annual Vytal Festival for you!" Port chimed, signing off for the day. Once he was certain that the audio and visual for himself and Oobleck was cut, he turned to his colleague and uttered, "I think I need a drink."

"Agreed" the green haired man replied as they rose from their seats and made the long journey down to the nearest bar.

* * *

"I do not understand," Penny said, folding her swords back into her backpack and all the wires and circuits in her head working overtime to process the information. "Why did you forfeit the match?" Pyrrha put her hand on the android's shoulder and started walking towards the exit with her.

"Well, my semblance gives me the ability to control and manipulate anything metal, once I have come into contact with it for a brief amount of time. When we fought, I felt a connection and I was not sure if what I had felt was real so I briefly scanned the air afterwards and I found that my feelings were right – you are a robot, a person made entirely of metal. If I so wanted to, I could consciously pick you up and throw you out of the ring and you would have been helpless to do anything to stop me." Sea green eyes widened in shock once more as the girl next to her talks so casually about how she could stop her. "Or subconsciously, I would shift your body a fraction to the left or right when I needed to, moving you into the line of my attacks. I deemed that this fight was entirely in my control – whether I wanted it to be or not. So I did what I believed was the honourable thing to do and I forfeited. It wouldn't be fair on you to fight someone like me." A pair of freakishly strong arms flew around the warrior's mid-section, lifting her up in what was meant to be a friendly hug but felt more like an aggressive tackle as Penny squealed with joy.

"Thank you, Pyrrha Nikos. You have given me a chance to prove myself once again in front of the crowd. You are an honourable young lady with good friends." A thank you seeped its way out of the girl, who upon being let go faded back to her normal hue rather than the worryingly blue look she had involuntarily been sporting. Penny grinned and skipped her way off to be back with her teammate as Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR approached their friend.

"What happened, Pyrrha?" Yang queried.

"Did she do something to you during the battle?" Weiss speculated. "I _knew_ there was something fishy about that girl..."

"You guys, Pyrrha is going to be fine. Penny did nothing wrong to her; I think she just made the right choice. Right, Pyrrha?" Ruby spoke with a calm manner typical of a leader.

As Jaune approached his girlfriend, she reached out a hand to him. As he took it in his, she smiled to him and then the group saying, "Yes, I believe I did." The two sisters simultaneously cupped their own hands and "Aww"ed at reveal of the relationship. Blake smiled, but her eyes flitted towards Yang once or twice. Weiss stood there as frozen as her persona would lead you to believe she was.

"Wait, wait, wait..." the two teams turned to the heiress, half of them expecting her to rant. "I thought that you had a thing for _me_ , Jaune."

"What can I say?" he shrugged with a grin. "An Arc's patience only goes so far. Besides, I'm pretty sure that it was an attraction on face value. This is…"

"I don't want to hear any more!" Weiss butted in and noticed how Ruby, Ren and even Yang all took a step back from her. Yang was very easily the most hot-headed out of Team RWBY and JNPR, but everyone also knew that when Weiss Schnee got angry not even Ruby Rose with her gifted speed could outrun her temper. That did not seem to be the case. "You're happy Jaune, I can see that. And I'm happy that you found someone who sees you for you" The two exchanged a smile of acceptance before Ruby rushed in and placed a thermometer in her mouth, Blake placed an ice pack on her head and Yang stood there with a pen, a clipboard and a pair of glasses. Blake's eyes flitted to her partner again; Yang looked surprisingly sexy with glasses, especially when she moved them down the bridge of her nose to speak.

"Who are you, and what have you done with the _real_ Weiss Schnee?" The white haired teen muttered a sarcastic "Ha, ha" past the thermometer in her mouth as JNPR all giggled at RWBY's antics. In a quick moment, the Pyrrha's mind flashed briefly back to the promise she made to herself last night.

"C'mon guys, let's get out of here. You head back to the dorms, I've got one little thing I need to do before I join you." The two teams made their way to the exit, filing on to the last ship down from the colosseum that day.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Ms. Nikos?"

"Yes sir." The girl stood in front of her Headmaster with a lot more confidence than the last time she was in his presence. "I wanted to talk about… about the Fall Maiden."

"Do you feel like you are ready now?" the man probed, sipping his drink whilst knowing her answer before she spoke.

"No sir. Quite the opposite. I have decided that the Fall Maiden title is one I cannot accept." Ozpin just looked at her, knowing full well why she has had a change of heart but wanting to hear from the horse's mouth.

"And why Ms. Nikos, after you were so quick to answer and say yes earlier this week, do you think that?"

"...Sir?" the question, while easy to answer, still threw the young girl.

"Why do you no longer want to be our Fall Maiden?"

"That's just it, sir – _our_ Fall Maiden. I have spent a large portion of my life doing things for other people, but very little has been done for me. I want that. I want to do things for me. I want to live a normal life without the constant fear of someone knocking at my door looking for the power I possess, without knowing that the world will never see me again. I want to create my own destiny." The orange light of the day's sunset shone through the glass at the bottom of the Beacon Tower, flooding the girl in a brilliant fiery light – a light see clearly didn't want to be in anymore.

"Fair enough, Ms. Nikos." There was no pleading, no persuading and no resistance from the man – he accepted her refusal squarely.

"Are... are you not going to stop me from walking away from this?"

"Four days ago, I knew that you were the right person. You had pride, you had the skills and you had an honourable side to you – something I saw today with your fight against Ms. Polendina." Pyrrha's head lowered, she was one of his school's most gifted young Huntresses and she forfeited a fight because at the time she believed it was right. She didn't consider the consequences going forward. "But in the space between then and now you grew attached and detached to not only your team, but your friends. You and Jaune will make a great couple. You complement each other well." He looked over at her, acknowledging the fact that he knew they were an item now. Her cheeks flushed red as he continued. "But then you tried to kill yourself, Pyrrha. You were reckless and acted purely on instinct – a poor instinct too, which is worse. That sort of unpredictability is something we can't have in a Maiden. So, no. No Ms. Nikos, I am not going to stop you. That is because I had already changed my mind myself."

The way he held himself told the girl that he had finished what he had to say. And as she had nothing to add to that either, she simply turned and left the building. As the door shut, Ozpin walked towards the elevator and waited by the door. After roughly a minute, he spoke out to the room

"You know, you do not need to hide yourself. I have known you were here for a while. Besides, I wanted to talk anyway." An arrow shot from the far side of building at the man's skull. He dodged it at breakneck speeds accompanied by a grey blur. "I am being serious when I say that. Please, it is important." The distant sound of heels could be heard on the floor as a pair of burning eyes came into view of the Headmaster. Cinder Fall waited just at the edge of the light, her eyes fixed on the man in green. "Come now, we have much to discuss."

* * *

And that is it guys: that is the end...  
... of the series parallels. Everything past this point is completely OC with no real link to the series - well, maybe the odd line of dialogue. Thank y'all for making it with me to this point.

I want to quickly thank [Jighdu], [therichardater], [death7559] and [dragon11262] (and anon Guest47) for reviewing my work up to this point; they've each been given a special something for their efforts - however minimal it was. I've still got a few left, mind...

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	10. Split

Cinder doubted in an instant that what he said was true – Ozpin, according to her boss, was the sort of person who would say he'd do one thing but mean the other, then proceed to do a third thing instead. Burning eyes stared past the round glasses into eyes of mundane brown as she asked the man,

"Why should I trust you?" His response was one that surprised the woman. Not because it was anything spectacular, but because of the honesty that came with the words.

"Because we _both_ know what you want, and I am willing to give it to you if you just talk with me." Cinder eased her way forward, eyes never really breaking contact with him until she was beyond him and inside the elevator. But even then, she looked at him once more as he joined her in the small metal box. "Also, I'm the only one of us with the key to get there." He took out a little silver key from his pocket, inserted it into a slot underneath all the other buttons on the lift, turned the key and pressed the top button that had since changed from its usual off position to glowing as a default. The tattooed woman broke her gaze at the Beacon Headmaster only to admit to herself that he was right; there would be no way that she would have gotten anywhere that wasn't 'up' in the tower if she didn't have they key – except for, y'know, blowing the doors open and making her own way down. In hindsight, this was easier and much less physically exhausting.

The doors parted once again to reveal a huge expanse of hall. The distance between the walls at her sides was great, the height of the room bested that distance and the length of the hall bested that again. It was enormous. She stood in awe briefly at the scope of what she was bearing witness to before Ozpin's voice broke through to her.

"Shall we?" he said, extending his cane outward and pointing towards the far end of the hall. He left first, she followed shortly after, her hand reaching out as if pulling back a bow, her weapon beginning to form in her hands. "Ms. Fall, I may have my back turned to you but that does not mean I cannot hear you. But, cowardice does seem to be your bread and butter." The man's words stung as her eyes narrowed and she shot forward, forming a sword and holding it to his throat.

"Don't you ever speak down to me like that again, or I will kill you where you stand and take her powers without any hesitation!" Ozpin seemed incredibly unimpressed by her words and her actions, breathing out a light sigh before replying.

"Ms. Fall…"

"My name is Cinder!" she hissed, blade pressing closer against his pale skin. "I am not one of your students, one of your little puppets. I am my own person with my own name." The man in green arched an eyebrow at that remark.

"Then why do you let _her_ control your every action?" Her eyes widened in surprise, the question striking her right at the core. She dropped the sword from the throat of Ozpin, who casually turned to look at her, the flames of hatred that flickered now extinguished revealing the very vulnerable woman in front of him. "Cinder," her eyes drifted from staring blankly into nothing up to meet his own as he continued "life will always extend an olive branch whenever someone is in need. Although I can't promise that what I am doing is right, I _can_ promise that what I offer will best whatever else you have been offered. Now, I know Salem…" the name struck fear into the eyes of the woman, exposed to the true terror of that name just as Emerald, Mercury and Neo must have been earlier that day. "Salem will offer you many things, but always expects something in return. No doubt, with the what you seem to so desperately seek the price would have been very high. May I ask what it is you asked for?"

"I..." Cinder struggled to form the words in her mouth. But eventually, she responded with her request verbatim "I want to be strong. I want to be feared. I want to be powerful..." There was a brief silence between the pair as the words echoed around the giant space. She felt scared and weak, just as she had back when those words first left her mouth and into the ears of Salem. She spoke those words with conviction back then. Now, with those words travelling into Ozpin's ears, they feel empty.

"Shall we continue on?" the man in green inquired. The woman's shoulders rose and her arms retracted to her sides as she nodded and started walking alongside the man she was led to believe was the enemy. And yet here he was, treating her as nothing more than someone who was in need of comfort and clarity.

"What you managed to do was quite impressive. Admittedly, my close friend Qrow Branwen intervened and left you with only part of the Fall Maiden's abilities. But even so, the fact that you found a way to transfer the powers to another person without killing them first was indeed most impressive." Cinder's head dropped in shame.

"It was one of _her_ creatures, a mite of some sort that... came from a glove. It spat some sort of webby goo onto her that drained her and let her Aura and energy flow into me."

"Ah, I was wondering how she came to get these scars..." her head rose as they had reached the two pods at the end of the grand hall. There in the pod in front of her in a trauma induced coma was the current Fall Maiden. Amber eyes glossed over as they looked at Amber, tears beginning to form. "... but there is nothing I can do for her now; I am just delaying the inevitable. The power is yours."

"What?" Ozpin said no more, he just extended his hand out and gestured towards the Fall Maiden. As a sense of purpose flooded through her once again, flames starting to flicker once again in her eyes, Cinder probed at the Headmaster's request. "No, there has to be something. There is no way that you would willingly give her up to me now, after keeping her hidden for so long." The man lowered his head with a grin, admitting to his deceit straight away.

"There is a small side effect that I don't believe Salem would have told you about."

"Side effect? What do you mean?"

"Well, because there are currently two Fall Maidens – an event that should _never_ have happened in the first place – the balance of Remnant itself has gone off kilter. Not only that, but because the power of the Maiden was obtained by, well – 'Less than Natural' means, then it was not just her power that was fractured into two, but also her psyche. That is why she is in here. Yes, she did pass out when you first attacked and Qrow 'saved' her, but she was perfectly fine for a day or so afterwards. She stayed with me until one night when she woke up screaming in unbearable agony. What little of her powers she had left she threw out at nothing and everything, she was trapped in a never-ending battle in her head. A battle, I am sorry to say, that _you_ would have to face as well."

"What sort of battle? Explain!" she snapped in confusion and impatience.

"I intend to, fully. You see, this sort of thing has happened only once before. A few generations after the First Maidens, a woman sought after their power. This, mind you, was when the Maidens were still widely known throughout the land as being real, as opposed to the legends and stories that they are now. And so, that woman attacked the Spring Maiden, obtaining most of her powers but not all of it – much like yourself. After a couple of days, the Spring Maiden broke. The fight in her head showed itself in the real world and with it came the truth about the Maidens – that all previous wielders of the Maiden's powers never truly die, they simply pass into the next body, diluting into their subconscious. This girl had seven people, herself included, fighting to remain in control of her own body. And that caused chaos. Whilst originally nice girls on their own and as a complete person, having seven shattered psyches in your mind drove the girl insane. The only cure was, to put it simply, to reunite the shattered souls into one body simultaneously."

"That doesn't make much sense…" Cinder admitted, her mind focussing on every detail that she could, yet still missing lots of it.

"I agree, it is very difficult to explain. But also, very easy." The words confused Cinder even more. "We simply had to find a new host for the Fall Maiden's powers and have both halves convene at the same time into her, fusing both shattered parts of the previous psyches, less continue the endless line of Maidens with fractured minds." Realisation hit Cinder like a tonne of bricks – she would have to give up the Fall Maiden's power. She recoiled, realising what the man in green was asking her to give up.

"No! I wanted this power, I nearly had all this power for myself! And that stupid old Qrow ruined everything and now you're telling me that I need to give this up?!"

"Not really, no. This machine Amber is in is keeping her in a coma with her mind at rest and the previous Maidens at bay. But it is also here because we initially planned to transfer Amber's Aura into a new host and, with having a healthy soul containing the Fall Maiden's powers, the other half would make its way out of its current place of rest – your own body – and join back with its other half. Unfortunately for us Pyrrha Nikos, our candidate who provisionally accepted the role, declined it – as I am sure you overheard." The tattooed woman recalled the conversation Ozpin and the girl were having when she was hiding away out of sight upstairs, and how she mentioned the Fall Maiden. Cinder hadn't put two and two together until now. "Fortunately," Ozpin continued, "with you here now, we can do the same thing to you. We could transfer Amber's Aura to you and reuniting the halves of the soul into one within you instead; right here, right now."

Cinder walked straight to the button beside the empty pod and pressed, opening the door and walked right in, acting far faster than she was thinking. She would get the Maiden's power, and nothing was going to stop her now.

"I cannot guarantee this will be painless, but I do need to hear you say this: are you sure that you are ready?" Hesitation from Cinder showed her uncertainty before the words ever could. But in her mind she knew; she was doing this for herself.

"I am sure." Ozpin nodded at her acceptance and pulled the levers and pushed the buttons necessary for the procedure to begin. Amber glowed with an orange light, gasping and opening her eyes for the first time in months as the tubes behind her began extracting her Aura. It flowed from her body, out of her pod and into Cinder who, upon having the very essence of the girl a few metres to her right flowing into her, screamed in true agony. The sounds haunted the empty space around the trio, hanging there and lingering long past each scream had stopped. The intensity of light from each pod traded places as Amber slowly lost her life energy and Cinder took it instead. With one final scream, the process ended after an agonising few minutes.

Both pod doors opened. Cinder walked out, feeling stronger certainly but there was something strange about her. Amber fell forward, Ozpin catching her and Cinder, in an uncharacteristic show of compassion, rushing to her side as well. Her heavy eyes opened as breathing became difficult for her.

"...Oz?" she managed, speaking equally as tough as breathing appeared to be.

"It's me Amber. It's okay." The scarred girl turned her head towards her previous assailant and rather than react with any negative emotion, she reached out a weary hand which the paler woman grabbed.

"I forgive you... for what you did... to me..." Tears welled up in both girls' eyes. "You must do... what is right... For everyone's sake... It is your... destiny... now..." Shock found its way into Cinder's system, that word stirring every and all emotions that could possibly be conjured at its mention.

"What do I need to do? I'm not sure I want this anymore, not with this burden. What can I do?"

"You will come to know... Just... trust and... believe..." And with that, the arm supporting the hand the woman was holding became limp and eyes shut one last time. Amber, the previous Fall Maiden, had died in the company of the current Wizard, her mind at peace once more.

"…Ozpin, I…" A tear fell from the glowing eyes of the new Fall Maiden. "I don't know if what I just did was right."

"Ms. Fall," Ozpin replied, the name not causing the woman to retaliate any longer, "as Amber said, 'you will come to know'. Most Maidens don't find their true purpose until after they have had their powers for a while. For now, I feel the best course of action for you is to take some time and think about what you want to do next." Cinder rose and started walking away, staring at her hands as she did so. She halted her walking only a few paces on, shut her eyes and felt herself rising off the floor. She turned her head to look at the man and his now deceased companion and, with another tear of regret and sadness flowing down her cheek, she turned back towards the exit and flew out of the great hall, leaving only one living person in the great expanse of nothing.

* * *

As much as this chapter may have come out 'great' in your eyes, this was by far _the_ hardest chapter I have written for this story. But, it's my fault for putting arguably the two most difficult characters to write in a scene all to themselves... oh well, it happened and the plot advances. And I apologise if you felt that the story suffered because of this.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	11. A Fight for More than The Match

It was the final day of the Vytal Festival. Anticipation, excitement, the arena – everything was sky high! Shade Academy had once again bested Atlas as the hooded boy depleted Penny's Aura through sheer will and determination, eliminating the Military Academy in the Semi-Finals. Which left only two people left to battle for a place in the Final.

Yang Xiao Long and Sun Wukong walked out towards the centre of the arena, the crowd whooping and hollering at the fight that was going to commence soon. Sun stared out into the crowd and saw a few things. First, his team. Second, a girl with a banner saying " **You're ABSolutely Amazing! xxx** " – a sentiment he appreciated, but he would have preferred it if she had mentioned his hair instead; a lot more work went into _that_ than his abs. Third and finally, he saw Blake – the cute little Faunus he'd had a crush ever since he first arrived in Vale – cheering at them. He shot her a couple of finger guns and a wink, something Yang picked up on immediately.

"Dude, you're not even subtle..." she mentioned quietly knowing full well that her partner's Faunus ears could still hear them at normal talking volume, even in this roar.

"I don't see why I need to be subtle. She's a Faunus and I'm a Faunus; it makes perfect sense to me!" The male Faunus said that so carelessly, he genuinely believed that because the pair of them were both Faunus' that would be that. But the brawler seemed adamant to prove him otherwise.

"Besides, this whole fight is going to be really awkward now..." she muttered under her breath as they reached their battle ground. Sadly, Sun tended to be nosey at the worst of times and now was no different. He caught what his competitor had said and responded like he had been spoken to directly.

"How is this going to be awkward?"

"Let me ask Sun; why are you doing this?"

"To impress Blake, of course." Yang moaned in response to his reply. Again, she muttered under her breath; again she was still too loud and too close to the nosey monkey boy.

"Oh no, not you too..."

"Wait Yang, what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Yang looked at Sun, face red with embarrassment. Slowly, the boy added everything up and screamed in realisation at the top of his lungs,

" _ **YOU FANCY BLAKE TOO!?**_ "

Angry red eyes shot Sun an evil glance as he covered his mouth in realisation. Now, while most people in attendance can't hear what is said on the battlefield in front of them, there are a select few who can. Specifically, a Faunus with acute hearing. Even more specifically, Blake Belladonna. Her face flushed red as fast as Ruby could move, turning a hue that too would have rivalled her team leader's cape.

"What's wrong Blake?" the young girl in question asked. The Faunus hid her face, accidently smacking herself with the force and speed of which she put her hands up and misjudging the distance.

"Nothing!"

Sun looked away from that scene back towards his opponent, who was also watching. He could hear the knuckles of the girl cracking underneath the black gloves she sported as she turned her attention back to him. She locked onto him and he knew that, if the fight had started right now, she would have punched him straight across the jaw and not cared how much it had hurt him. Instead, she smirked. A smirk that gave way to a giggle. A giggle that broke into full on laughter.

"Um, Yang? You alright there?"

"This is _perfect_ Sun!" she said through her slowly dying chuckles. "We're actually _fighting_ for Blake!" Upon hearing herself say it out loud, the girl started laughing once again.

"Well... okay then." The Faunus didn't question her reasoning. But then his mischievous side kicked in. "Tell you what, let's do this properly."

"What? Sun, how would you know anything about proper? I mean, look at you: your default outfit is basically shirtless"

"Hey, I can learn things!" Yang rolled her now lilac eyes at that, not believing it one bit.

"Alright then, what do you mean 'Properly'?"

"We fight for Blake properly. No channelling Aura, no semblance. Whoever uses their semblance first or gets eliminated loses Blake." The buxom brawler looked at him bewildered at the fact that he had said something reasonable in the conversation. But there was one flaw:

"My semblance is passive, Sun. I can't turn it off." The monkey boy shrugged.

"Fine, if you go 'Ol' Red Eyes' on me, you've used your semblance and you lose." She pondered at the proposition briefly before she accepted. Sun grinned as Professor Port began the countdown. "Shall we give her a good show, Yang?" he dropped into his fighting stance.

"You bet Sun." She dropped into her fighting stance, lowering her voice to a whisper so that the catalyst of this 'friendly' bet couldn't hear them as she did so. "When the countdown finishes, turn to Blake and blow her a kiss."

"Why?"

"Because it'll be funny! Just do it."

"BEGIN!" The two blondes stood up straight, turned directly to the feline Faunus and in perfect unison blew a kiss to the girl. Watching the whole thing, Blake's amber eyes widened at what had just occurred, then narrowed as she spoke a promise to herself.

"I am going to kill both of them once they step out of that arena." She didn't intend to keep that promise, but she was going to make them pay dearly in any case.

Yang giggled at what her partner's reaction was only to narrowly dodge a foot flying right past her face, Sun already fighting. She smirked as she retaliated with a swing to his head, but the Faunus nimbly ducked underneath it, backflipping out of the way of a second strike coming from the brawler. She jumped forward, continuing to press the attack. The pair exchanged punches – each swing that Sun made Yang blocked with relative ease; her weapons being wrist mounted meant she had a natural skill when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and eventually she started gaining the upper hand. Feigning her first strike to his head, she quickly jabbed at Sun's stomach catching the monkey boy off guard. Keeling over from the sudden sharp pain in his core, Yang tried to seize the opportunity for a powerful punch to knock him backwards. But right as her fist was about to make contact, a tail wrapped round and stopped her mid-swing. Grey-blue eyes looked up at her with a smirk on his face as the boy rose and twirled round fast, throwing the blonde across the battlefield and right to the edge of the arena. She skidded to a halt just as the floor below became visible, then saw a shadow jumping towards her. Sun fell towards the ground fast, but had misjudged his jump and instead flew past Yang and straight towards the colosseum floor, their battle for Blake ended in less than spectacular fashion. But the girl grabbed his hand, halting his decent and pulled him back up onto the floating platform.

"My, my – what a show of sportsmanship from Ms. Xiao Long!" Port chimed over the confused cries from the crowd. Sun stared at her, equally as confused as some of the people watching the fight.

"You do realise that you would have just won Blake there, right?"

"I know," Yang replied walking away and preparing to start fighting once again, "but where's the fun in that? If I'm going to win, I want to do it _properly_ " her words echoing Sun's original proposal. She pumped her wrists, summoning Ember Celica and crouching low. The boy grinned as he too readied his weapons, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, in nunchaku mode.

In perfect unison, the battling blonds fired a shot from their respective weapons – the energy colliding near the middle of No-Man's Land on the field. They fired a second and third shot, again colliding into one another near the middle. The continuous barrage of energy bolts began afterwards, the pair seemingly even. But as time drew on it was clearly that the full swings that Yang needed to make to fire her shotgun-gauntlets tired her far quicker than swinging nunchaku did for Sun. Eventually, a few shots made their way to Yang crashing into her with force and forcing her to let out a cry of pain before she was hit suddenly with Sun's weapon, now a staff. He got a couple more hits on her before she caught onto his pattern of attack and intercepted his swing, her hand stopping the staff as he had done to her earlier. The brawler pulled the staff closer to her and with her free hand she swung at him, making clean contact with his jaw and forcing him back with the impact. She felt her semblance growing, her eyes could turn red at any moment. She needed to end this fast, she was _not_ going to lose Blake now.

She hurled Sun's staff at him like a javelin, nearly striking him in the head. He ducked underneath it and caught it with his tail and starting running towards his opponent. The two locked hands, pushing against one another, the power of the struggle making itself known. As Sun brought his Aura up, it manifested itself physically around him his body now glowing a powerful yellow as he tried to overpower her, slowly draining it. Yang grinned in victory – Sun made a mistake and she had won.

"You've lost Sun" an evil playfulness in her voice as her eyes faded to a crimson red and her own Aura began shining from her like flames, hers slowly draining now too.

"The fight, maybe. But not the battle!" he retorted, his Aura growing stronger again to try and overpower the girl. A gesture she matching in return, neither one yielding to the other, small stones beginning to rise from the ground below as the power shook the colosseum. After the show of power climaxed in a strong burst of energy from the pair of them, the blonds flew backward off their respective sides of the arena. Yang flipped and fired herself upwards with her gauntlets. Sun summoned his semblance to throw himself back up.

They both landed at the same time, rolling and charging full sprint at the other. Yang's arm reached back, ready to deliver a powerful punch. Sun swung his staff, fully prepared to strike her hard. They both swung. They both connected. They both flew back from the impact. They both looked up at the screen in anticipation, then shock, as the buzzer sounded for both fighters being eliminated. With that final blow, they each dealt enough damage to the other at the exact same time to drop their Aura reserve down to 14% each. There was no 'one then the other', no 'they have more Aura' – it was a complete stalemate!

"What a shocking Semi-Final bout!" Oobleck cried in a way that showed part excitement, part panic – neither he nor Professor Port knew what to do in this situation. "Both combatants have managed to deplete their rival's Aura, but as neither of them did it first or currently have more in the tank, it is going to be a... wait a minute, I seem to be being stopped by Mr Wukong!" All eyes, including Yang's, turned to the Faunus. He walked up to her, grabbed her by the wrist and raised her arm in the air, pointing at her with his free hand.

"It seems that the fighters have made the decision for us. Though I can't tell you what is going through is head, I can tell you that Sun Wukong has given the fight to Yang Xiao Long of Beacon, who we shall see in the Final later today!" As the crowd roared, Yang stared at her friend asking questions in her mind. He could read in her eyes that she was wondering why, so he answered without a prompt.

"A deal is a deal." The brawler blushed and hugged the Faunus who returned the gesture, then extended out his arm for her. Yang linked arms with him as they walked off to meet with their friends and teammates in the wings.

As an aircraft flew overhead, the blonds reach their friends. Blake moved towards them as everyone else remained back for a little bit. Sun unhooked his arm from Yang and gestured to her partner that showed that she was hers. But the feline girl walked straight past her and hit Sun in the arm.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" Blake's eyes were narrow and angry, staring right at the boy who didn't seem to think that he had done anything wrong.

" _That_ was for what you did at the start of the match!"

"Hey, that was Yang's idea, not mi..." He was cut off by Blake wrapping her arms around him and hugging him.

"And that was for what you did at the end. Thank you, Sun." She looked at him and smiled. Still confused as to what happened, he awkwardly just grinned and raised his thumbs making himself look like a fool but definitely improving the mood. JNPR, Neptune, Weiss and Ruby all now made their way to the trio as Blake was grabbed by the waist and pulled in by Yang, who wasted no time in pressing their lips together. The couple stood there in each other's embrace for ages; Jaune and Pyrrha glanced at one another and linked hands, knowing what it is like to have what Yang and Blake now had; Ren and Nora shot each other a sly glance, the turquoise eyes of the girl winking at her partner and mouthing the word 'Tomorrow' at him, his nod the only conformation she needed. After nearly a minute or so of them standing in silence watching Yang and Blake make out, the atmosphere getting increasingly more and more awkward, Sun voiced his thoughts.

"So, are you doing this to annoy me Yang?" The buxom girl, who's lips never truly parted from her partner's in that time, simply shot the monkey a middle finger as they continued. "Right..." He lowered his head, knowing when he was beat... again. Nora laughed, as did Ruby, Pyrrha and Neptune. The girls eventually did give way and separated, Blake speaking first.

"I think that we're all kissed out for a while now Sun, so you won't need to worry about that happening again any time soon." Her cheeks were red with passion and she was a little short of breath, but her point got across. The group of friends made their way to the nearest food stall up in the colosseum as Yang needed to recharge as much energy as she could before her Finals fight that afternoon. As they all walked off, Qrow – who had been sitting right at the top of the crowded seating area, smirked as he saw his Niece walking away hand-in-hand with her new girlfriend.

"Atta girl, Firecracker..." But his smirk faded as he looked up once to see the same ship from a couple of minutes back circling around again. He had a strong hunch who was in there, and he remembered what Oz had said to him earlier on in the Festival. He knew what to do and he knew it was right.

* * *

Hope this chapter was enjoyable for everyone. Funnily enough, this fight was the first thing I thought about for this story. Everything came from this one sequence. I love BumbleBY, so anyone who vaguely knows me could have told where the story was going

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	12. To A Heart's Desire

The aircraft landed a long way from everybody else. It was better that way. After a minute of inactivity from the vehicle, the rear doors opened for its occupants, who quickly skulked off towards the colosseum. Once the pair had found themselves a sheltered corner, Emerald started to properly attend to Neo's wound. The older woman had fought against Mercury for her friend whilst they were heading to Mountain Glenn and knocked him out with relative ease. They had planned to dump him defenceless amongst the Grimm as he was instructed to do to Emerald, but the boy had tightened the screws on his prosthetic legs so tight that neither girl could undo them so they threw him out with them still on. The only problem for them was that he wasn't completely unconscious, just faking it and he grabbed Neo by the leg as he fell, bringing her with him.

The mint haired girl remembered setting the aircraft steady and bolting to the open doors, watching from above as they landed. Merc had paralyzed himself after landing on a rock with very little Aura reserve due to the fight with Yang earlier, shutting down any function of his torso downwards. The ice cream themed girl was trying so hard to escape that see failed to raise her Aura in time and gashed a rather nasty cut on her side; it was visible even from a good 30m above them. Being the only one of the two able to move, Neo hobbled over to her ex-teammate with rage fuelling her and adrenaline blocking out all the pain that would inevitably come as soon as it had worn off. She took out her parasol and...

Emerald didn't watch what her friend did to the boy, she hastily ran back to the controls and started lowering the aircraft so that the woman could make her way back inside. She didn't ask, mostly because once Neo was inside she stayed out of the view of red eyed girl for the fly back to Beacon, and that when the pair got there and snuck out of the vehicle carrying med-kits, she could see that her friend was covered in a little bit of her own blood from the fall, and that there were many large splatters of sprayed blood across the woman's body – the dry red stains a stark contrast to the creamy white of the outfit and pale complexion. She tried her best to clear and dress the wound, her mute friend wincing at each shot of pain that flew to her brain. Once it was wrapped up nicely, the woman immediately tried to get up and continue what they had planned to do, but she was halted by another wave of pain.

"Hey, take it easy Neo." A desperate look was shot at the young girl as she sat down again, who was returning with a caring glance. "We're still going to do it, don't worry. I will try and find where he is whilst you stay here, then I'll come back and we'll go together." The woman started signing to her friend,

" _No. Find Roman. Together..._ " she would have said more, if not for a rough voice cutting through the silence.

"No need to go lookin' kid, I can take you to Roman." The girls turned sharply as Qrow stood there behind them.

Now, Neo was a gifted fighter and was equally as great at telling what sort of fight she would be in for. When she was on the train, she easily outclassed the blonde she was fighting, so she toyed with her. A lot. If it's not going to be as clean cut of a fight like that one was, she'd take things much more seriously. However, if there is a fight she knows she can't win – like when that woman showed up on the train before her kill – she will run to fight another day. And seeing Qrow, she didn't consider any of that. She grabbed her parasol and threw herself at him, adrenaline kicking in once more and numbing the pain in her side. As the blood-coated blade extended from the end of it, the woman thrust her weapon at the man. But Qrow was not much worse than his sister when it came to fighting. Had Neo been in the right frame of mind she would have known this and would have stayed back. She wasn't, so she didn't. He dodged the attack with minimal effort and as the woman kept swinging and missing with each wild strike, Qrow started making conversation with the dark-skinned onlooker, his flow interrupted every now and again when he needed to dodge a particularly wild attack.

"Would you... tell your little friend here that... that I am being deadly serious when I say... that I will... take... that I will take you to Roman?" Him mentioning his name again caused Neo to see red as she readied herself; _no one_ talks about Roman in front of her, especially him! Her friend stepped in the way, blocking the chance for woman to advance on her opponent. The girl stayed there as she spoke calmly to her enraged friend.

"Neo, stop! You don't need to get worked up. I believe him, he wouldn't have come here if he didn't have something for us... for you. Please, I don't want to see you hurt yourself so close to what you've been working towards for the past months." Neo's muscles relaxed as her friend's soft words eased her anger at the man. They suddenly tensed again as adrenaline stopped and pain took its place. Emerald caught her friend and supported her weight as she looked up weakly at the Huntsman in front of them. The mute brought her fingers together on her right hand, placed them on her chest and rotated them in a circle clockwise.

" _Sorry_ " she signed.

"That's alright. Now come on; that aircraft you lot commandeered will get us up to the ship he's in. We'll need to hurry, Ironwood'll head back to Atlas once the tournament is over and you would have lost your chance." Qrow lead the way, the two girls following slower, but determined – they'll have Roman soon.

* * *

The three of them silently made their way through the ship. Neo was feeling much better after receiving and Aura shot to help her steady and better support herself. They made their way to the holding cells, making their way down the line until they came to the one Qrow had been told held the person they were looking for. He stopped a few cells down, pressing a button on the Scroll he had and letting the girls walk up to the opening door. He continued working away on the Scroll as a voice rang from the darkness.

"Well; it's about time." Out stepped Roman Torchwick, the tall man taking his time approaching the girls who stood before him. The man looked over as he left and saw the Huntsman working away at his flank. "Oh, come _on_! I've barely even left the cage and there's already a Huntsman waiting to throw me back in? What's a guy gotta do?"

"Relax Roman," Emerald said, stepping up to him "Qrow is with us."

"Oh really?" Eyebrows arched as curiosity got the better of him. "What happened to your other boyfriend? Fed up of guys your own age and decided to start dating a little older, eh?" The shorter girl walked up to her secret husband and showed him a picture of Mercury; his face and body covered in multiple stab and slice wounds from Neo's attack on him. The boy was most certainly dead, the deep puncture wounds between the eyes and right where his heart was being clear indications of that. Her eyes sank to the floor, disgusted at what she had done. But Roman moved swiftly on from that rather gruesome image and questioned Emerald once again. "And what of Momma Bear? She sitting on the side lines and letting the pawns do her dirty work again?"

"Cinder doesn't know about this. What we're doing only benefits us." The ginger turned and focussed his attention on the dark-haired man, who was still tapping away at the screen.

"And what are you getting out of this, Birdman?" Red eyes looked up from the Scroll as he replied.

"I'm doing this because I was told that what Emerald was doing, even if it seemed wrong, was the right thing. Even if you and your little friend there did beat up my nieces on several separate occasions..." he shot a quick glance to Neo who looked a little surprised and embarrassed at that before returning his gaze to the screen as he continued. "And I've seen what you can do. You're dangerous and you _should_ be locked away in here for the rest of your miserable days." Neo's Scroll pinged as Qrow finished. "But, a little mint haired birdie told me why you did that. And I've seen what that can do to some people: love is a powerful thing, and taking it away from someone can drive a person mad. I ain't gonna let someone lose their way because of lost love, I've seen it happen twice and each time is more painful than the last." He gestured at the ice cream girl's Scroll. She opened it and looked in surprise, showing Roman. "That'll get you somewhere nice, somewhere away from everything that has or will happen. I also talked to some guys who can pull a few strings, and a couple more who tie the strings in the first place: everything's been wiped. You two are free citizens of Remnant."

Neo and Roman looked at the glowing screen in pure delight; 250,000 Lien each – courtesy of Ozpin's and Qrow contacts – and all major criminal records cleared and erased from the four main Kingdom's criminal databases. The pair instinctively wrapped their arms around one another and hugged out their excitement – their first real hug as free people. Roman spoke, the act he had been putting on whilst trying to work this job for the last pay check dropping and his true, caring side showing.

"Thank you. It means a lot to us; truly." The tall man shifted his focus to his wife, holding both of her hands. "Well darling, where to?" Her hands retracted from his as she signed to him in full sentences, his understanding and fluency in Sign Language surprising Emerald a little bit – although looking back it was kind of obvious that this probably would have been the case.

" _I don't care where I go; so long as I am with you._ " She finished, then took off each of her gloves reveal her pristine hands, colour co-ordinated nail polish and ring. Roman grinned as he removed his hat and popping open a single small compartment in the top, unveiling his own wedding ring hidden in his hat the whole time and placing it on his own finger. The couple embraced with a brief but powerful kiss. As they parted, they held hands and began walking away. Emerald looked on as her only friend from this hellish nightmare she was in walked away from her, her mind focussed on the one thing she had been searching for ever since his capture, red eyes tearing up in denial of the fact that she would be alone once again. But Neo stopped dead in her tracks, signed for Roman to " _Hold on, give me a minute_ " then ran back to her teammate and almost tackled her with a hug. Emotions flew from the taller girl.

"I don't have anyone else, Neo. I won't have anyone else to turn to; I'll be all alone again..." Neo broke off the hug to sign words of encouragement to her brave friend.

" _RWBY. Your friends. Celebrate._ " She looked back at Roman, asking if it was okay for her to suggest the idea. He nodded, so she continued " _Tell truth. Roman. Dust. Plan. Your feelings..._ " Emerald initiated the hug once again.

"I don't know how I feel! I don't know what I'm supposed to feel..."

"Happy."

The sound caused the girl to jump – such an unfamiliar sound from such a familiar source. Emerald's eyes widened as she stared at her friend, who put her finger over her own mouth and winked at her. The girl looked at Roman, who slyly smirked and nodded. He obviously knew as well. She started signing once more.

" _Go tell. Who knows? Maybe..._ " and she pointed to the finger sporting her ring. This caused the dark-skinned girl to giggle at the prospect. She sighed in contentment as she knew that this was most likely goodbye.

"Look after each other Neo. I wish you all the best and many happy years ahead of you. Keep in touch." The not-so mute girl silently smiled, pivoting and jogging her way towards her husband who tipped his hat to her as he left. The odd couple moved to the front docking bay together at a pace; the Festival had concluded and they knew that once everyone was dismissed from the arena they would have no chance of escaping to their new lives. Besides, they had one more, ever so minor crime they needed to commit – they needed to 'borrow' another aircraft. Qrow hugged the shoulder of the Haven student paternally and pulled her back the way they came.

"C'mon kid – I know I _may_ seem like an old fart to you, but I am a good listener. And you've got a little bit of explaining to do; because either way, my niece's going to know. Either from me or from you." Emerald sighed once more and walked on with the Huntsman. She had succeeded in what she had planned to do. Beacon still stood. No one got hurt, and Neo got Roman back – what's better is that they can actually live their lives properly now.

And she felt like Qrow was going to help her do one last thing. And she was glad that he was.

* * *

I genuinely loved writing this chapter, it's very much a pay-off chapter: plot threads from multiple previous chapters all tied off here so this may seem very neat and "End of the Story" like, but trust me - I have some promises to keep and some questions to answer.

For those wondering why I think Neo can speak but doesn't - she's a mercenary and I believe that if she "can't speak" then that's one less thing they have to track her down. It made sense to me and if you don't like it, she isn't going to be in any more of the story so... problem solved

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	13. The Gathering of Friends

And with Port and Oobleck signing out for the final time, the 40th Bi-Annual Vytal Festival was officially over. No matter if people came to support their friends, came for the show or were competitors in the competition, everyone felt like a winner. But there was only one true winner of the tournament.

Team JNPR had already decided amongst themselves that, regardless of the outcome, Team RWBY, Team SSSN and Team CFVY were welcome to come to their dorm and they'd have a celebration party. Weiss spoke on behalf of RWBY and said that they'd be delighted to join them. The reason Ruby herself didn't speak? No sooner had Jaune said "Did you all want to come to our dorm at 7:00pm for a party..." Ruby hastily replied with "Yes!" before she disappeared with a trail of rose petals flowing behind her. She didn't eat before the tournament accidently and was trying to dissuade her mind from thinking about food so that she wouldn't miss any action by going down to the surface for food, and so she could stuff her face afterwards. By the time the Final was over, she was so desperate to eat that she literally flung herself off the edge of the colosseum and nosedived towards the food stalls.  
Coco mentioned that Yatsuhashi and Fox would probably sit it out – parties of any kind really weren't their thing – but she'll see if Velvet was interested and they'd pop along and join them if she was.  
The Haven Semi-Finalist jumped at the chance to party, providing it wasn't like the dance and they needed to wear ties again. Neptune was also eager, but so long as there was no mandatory or choreographed dancing he'd get roped in to; he mentioned how his dance skills were more limited than Sun's fashion sense which garnered a laugh from most people present, Sun of course being the obvious exception. So, with most people settled on their decisions, they parted ways until later that evening.

Coco ran off to find her girlfriend and the rest of her team. Yang insisted that the rest of their team found Ruby before she passes out in a bowl of noodles, but Weiss of all people mentioned that she'd had an exhilarating couple of days and deserved a little break from it all. The Heiress suggested that she'd go with Neptune and Blake to locate their young friend, but Yang very childishly extended her arms out towards her partner and uttered "No" over and over until the dark-haired girl walked into her embrace.

" _MY_ Blakey!"

"Fine..." was all Yang got verbally, though she did get an eye roll as well – a much more Weiss thing to do. "I'll take the other Faunus then. I _wanted_ to keep the two pairs of Love Birds away from one another" Sun groaned and Neptune facepalmed.

"Why on Remnant does everyone think we're a couple?!" Sun just shrugged as the three of them left to find the hungry young girl. Blake looked at Yang, her partner wildly grinning. She felt the need to ask the blonde what she was thinking.

"Well; I'm feeling a trifle down-in-the-dumps, Ruby's off somewhere devouring whatever food she can get her hands on and Weiss is going to look for her. That means there's not going to be anyone at the dorm for a good couple of hours besides us..." Faunus ears pricked up underneath the black bow atop her head as Blake felt a little hotter under the collar at her beautiful partner's words. "I was hoping we could, y'know..." Blake bit her bottom lip, waiting for Yang to say what she wanted to hear her say for so long; she had loved everything about her for almost the entire time she knew her, but it was the way she held herself that really drove the feline girl mad. "...get some revision done for Grimm Studies!"

"I thought you'd never... wait, what?" She realised only part way through her own sentence what the blonde had said to her. She thumped her partner hard in the stomach, causing the brawler to crumple over in pain. "You know _exactly_ what that was for, Yang Xiao Long!" Raven hair flicked round fast as the girl almost marched away from her recovering girlfriend. The blonde pulled herself up to standing and glanced round at JNPR, who were witness to the whole scenario.

"Take your time heading back to the dorm, if you don't mind" Yang managed a playful smirk before she ran after her partner, talking to herself. "I've already ended out on top of one Faunus today, Blakey; I am going to end out on top of you as well!" The four remaining students stood where they were for a little while, each waiting for one of the other three to make the first move to the exit. Pyrrha was the one to eventually break the silence, must to everyone else's relief.

"Well, I guess we could take a wonder round Vale and see what sort of things we can get for tonight for a little while."

"I think that's a very solid idea" Ren added.

"Yup, let's go!" Nora cried as if rallying the troops to battle. But rather than an almighty four-person charge, JNPR gentle strolled their way to the exit, hopefully catching one of the emptier aircrafts back down to the ground.

* * *

Jaune sat on the bed, waiting patiently. The sky was already easing its way into the warm palette of a sunset. Ren and Nora were deliberating in the opposite room, no words could be made out but their conversation most definitely there. Pyrrha walked in having been on steady jog around the courtyard to wind herself down a little bit. She saw her boyfriend glumly sitting there, so she approached him and cuddled up close to him. He hugged her shoulder and planted a kiss on her hair, his mood lifting with the interaction.

"Jaune, what's on your mind?" she inquired, not wanting her team leader to be feeling sad right before a party.

"Nothing much. It's just – this is the first time I've ever had this and I am honestly a little confused what to do." The red-head giggled as she reached out and cupped her hand to his cheek.

"Jaune, you do not need to do anything different. Sometimes, when you try doing things in this sort of scenario, it comes off as forced and that's not always a good thing. Just be you. Be the person I grew to love over these months." The blond took her hand and kissed it, the action causing the girls heart to flutter slightly.

"Whatever you say, Pyrrha. You always were a good teacher." Knuckles wrapped on the door as Weiss poked her head round. "Come on in, Weiss! Did you find Ruby in the end?"

"Well, sort of..." she turned around and drew the attention to the cloaked girl, who was slowing shuffling in, her tired feet dragging along the carpet, arms cradling her stomach. "Sun found her at a Noodle Bar where there was a mini Competition: 'Who Could Eat The Most Bowls in 5 Minutes? Winner wins 1,500 Lien, 15 Lien entry fee'. Apparently, the dolt had nearly finished her ninth bowl when he showed up, trying to pull her away and she 'lost her streak', so she said that she'd take her time to finish the rest of her bowls and then she'd be back to try again." The couple looked at each other with worried expressions; they both knew what Ruby could be like when there was a normal competition and when there was food. Having a competition centred around food: trouble. "So, she did. And now at _least_ 20 giant bowls of noodles and 30 Lien later, she has realised what a silly mistake that was. Haven't you, Ruby?"

"I need cookies and a hug..." the small girl mumbled, falling to her knees and then flopping onto the floor, her face now buried in the carpet muffling her words to the point of near inaudibility.

"What you need is to have a few drinks and hopefully that will at least wash down the excess of noodles you currently have clogging up your stomach"

"And the hug?" she muttered, turning her head so that her words could be heard a little better.

"Forget the hug; I do not want to accidently squeeze you too hard and have the last few hours' worth of food to come spewing out of your mouth again all over my clothes." The girl moaned, then buried her head back into the carpet. With any luck, she hoped, the ground would open and the pain she felt from having been betrayed by food would melt away as she was swallowed up.

"I'm sure Nora did buy cookies earlier Ruby," the boy added, "so you can slowly nibble away on a few of those during the night as well." A small hand raised up to give an unenergetic fist bump before it went limp and dropped to the ground once more, the little bit of exertion used to do that tiring the normally hyped up girl. Jaune pulled her up onto one of the beds whilst Pyrrha grabbed her a couple of cookies and a drink. Having control over metal had its benefits; as the warrior gave her friend the drink, she quickly flicked her free hand upwards pulling the metal bottle cap off and flying straight into her hand with ease, the unmistakable sound catching Nora's attention from the other room, bringing her and Ren back to the group.

Sun and Neptune arrived after a few minutes, having quickly made a stop to see the other members of their team off back to Haven. The Faunus carried a couple of cans in his arms and placed them on the table with the rest of the edibles and drinkables for that night, taking one from the pack with his tail as he went to go talk to Ren. Neptune went straight to talk to Weiss, having taken advice from the blond leader of JNPR at the dance to not put on an act and just talk to her. They talked idly and seemed to be getting on quite well. Ruby sat on the bed listening intently to the conversations going on around her, sipping at her drink occasionally and taking a nibble of a cookie whenever she didn't feel like doing that, her stomach slowly feeling a lot less knotted than when she first arrived and her mood improving very clearly as she did.

Coco and Velvet hurried in as the sun started setting below the buildings on the horizon, skipping the formalities and hushing everyone else as the final guests were just down the hallway. After an eerily quiet few seconds, the door opened once more to let Blake and Yang into the room. Everyone burst into cheers as the girls entered, the sudden sounds shocking Blake with her delicate Faunus hearing even more sensitive due to her not wearing the bow atop her head; a nice difference and a show of how comfortable she felt around everyone here, Velvet thought. The couple approached the rest of the party as Ruby shot towards her sister, her pains from earlier not gone but good enough for her to resume her life as the bubbly little sister once more. She grabbed her hand as she proclaimed to all who heard:

"Three cheers for Yang, Champion of the 40th Vytal Festival!"

Excitement flowed through the party as they all cheered for their friend and teammate, who defeated the hooded boy from Shade Academy without any trickery or even without any Aura or semblance – she won fair and square. The brawler stood there taking in all the praise from her companions. This didn't feel the same as back in the arena; then it was mostly people she didn't know and couldn't really focus or care about. Here, it was intimate and personal and that, like very few things before this, stopped Yang dead in her tracks and lost for words. Her cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment, unsure of what to do. Blake didn't feel the need to cheer – she instead just leaned in and kissed the cheek of the girl who she had fallen for. Once the cheering had ceased and people had calmed down a little from the excitement, the party truly began. The ten Beacon and two Haven students were going to enjoy themselves; they'd all had a very hectic couple of weeks and as such felt that they'd earned a well-deserved break from it all.

Forty minutes after Yang and Blake arrived, the door knocked. This threw a lot of those who had heard it; everyone who was invited was here, who could that be? Nora hoped that it wouldn't be Glynda or Ozpin, she didn't want to get caught doing something like this. But it was neither of the two teachers. Instead, standing patiently outside the door, was Penny.

"Penny?" Ruby asked, very confused as to how the android knew that they were having this party. "Why are you here? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing has happened Ruby Rose. I wanted to join you for your celebration. My father does not like me doing this, so I snuck out to join you."

"Penny! You know you can get in trouble for that."

"I am aware of the risks. But I have never been to a party and I thought that I should have my first party with friends." Ruby shrugged, not the sort of person to turn someone away. Heck, the whole reason that Penny considered RWBY her friends was because the team leader ignored everyone else and called her friend in the first place. She opened the door wider to let the Atlas girl in, immediately being greeted by Pyrrha.

"Penny. It is great to see you again!" Unsure how to respond, the girl linked her hands nervously in front of her.

"Thank you Pyrrha Nikos."

"Would you like a drink Penny?"

"Oh, no. I can't drink at all. Y'know..."

"Right, because of the -" usually proper girl made a fool of herself by briefly doing a very bad impression of a stereotypical robot, much to Ruby's and the wondering lilac eyes of a tipsy Yang's amusement.

"Yes, because of that."

"That's alright Penny," Ruby jumped in before the red head could damage the android's confidence any further "I'm staying away from that stuff anyway."

"But what about that half empty bottle that you are holding?" Ruby hid the bottle behind her at a pace, pretending that it never existed.

"Oh, _that_ thing isn't... a..." Ruby stared into the unflinching sea-green eyes of her friend. "Alright, I'm having one. But it is only to wash away the bowls of noodles I had after the tournament had concluded." Penny smiled a naïve smile.

"I understand Ruby. Which reminds me, I must go and say hello and congratulate Yang on her victory." And she did, the blonde incorporating the bow wearer into the conversation like she had been there since its beginning. The young girl stared around the room quickly; all her friends were here and they were happy.

Well, most of her friends... she made her way to the window, the sky flashing an awesome green for a moment as the sun set below the horizon and gave way to the Universal norm of darkness, and sat on the ledge, her mind focussing solely on where Emerald might be.

' _She would have loved this, maybe... I mean, I don't think Mercury would have enjoyed it much; he and Yang didn't exactly part the arena on the best of terms... I wish she was here, so that she could be happy..._ " Her, and everyone else's, thoughts we broken as there was an almighty crash from the corner of the room. Coco and Jaune made their way there first, everyone but Ruby following, as she opted to watch from the windowsill. Laying on the ground was Ren, covered in the food and drink that he was holding not so long ago.

"Nora did it." He managed, fighting off a brief wave of discomfort. Eyes now focussed on his partner, who stood there looking innocent.

"What?!" she yelled defensively, either acting oblivious to what she had done or was genuinely so. The party just laughed and continued on, Blake helping her quiet reading buddy up off the floor and replacing his drink. Ruby let out a little noise of content before looking out onto Beacon and Vale once more, her young mind still picturing the girl she wanted to be here so badly.

* * *

This is most likely where the story's going to wind down a little and be much more dialogue driven than action. In all honesty, I find dialogue easier than action, so forgive me for slipping back under my comfort blanket.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	14. Spin The Bottle

There was a lot of fun at the party and it was being enjoyed by all. After the little 'marital-squabble' as Yang put it even though it was a slight disagreement and a not-so slight shove, Nora and her batted heads over the fact that it was a very relationship type thing to do. The orange haired girl kept on insisting that the pair of them were never, nor ever have been, "Together-together", a fact the former was thankful that she could hold her drink over else she probably would have blurted it out at the blonde, who called bullshit on the whole story. All the while, the girls' respective partners were trying their hardest to separate the two.  
Ruby had re-joined the rest of her friends and was talking to Sun and Neptune about any and all subjects that came to their mind; their looks, Neptune's irrational and rather ironic fear of water, Sun's time spent as a stowaway, trying her best to avoid anything that she could have linked back to Emerald, whom she still wished was here enjoying this with them.  
Coco and Velvet spoke a lot with Jaune and Pyrrha as each coupling had something interesting to talk about; the second years talked to one another about how the first years were such a cute couple and that they reminded them of when they first started dating; Jaune asked Coco about good leadership tactics and skills whilst Velvet chatted away with Pyrrha about how adorable their respective partners were and how they each brought them out of their shells. And Penny floated around a lot, content with just listening to conversations.

10:00pm rolled around very quickly in some people's eyes, but for others they were glad it did. 10:00pm was when the noise curfew kicked in at Beacon, so whilst you could still be doing things like this you had to keep the noise down to a minimum so that other students who weren't there could get a decent night's sleep. Despite the fact that the volume had dropped, the energy from a few people there were still high. Nora and Sun were obviously still very chirpy, but Yang for once was much calmer and laid-back. She did have Blake keeping her in line for a lot of the time, that might have something to do with it.

An idea was thrown around that the group of friends should play Spin the Bottle, as there was no way _that_ could get out of hand. Pyrrha placed an empty bottle on the floor and capped it with a used lid as well to prevent any leftover drink being flung all over the students. Well, that's the reason she gave. In honesty, it was so that she could fix the spins occasionally. As you could imagine, the questions asked at the start were tame and not very personal; more the generic type question you'd get asked. As she was The Champ, every suggested that Yang spun first. She spun the bottle and it ended up facing her. Without even batting an eyelid, she both asked herself and answered her question.

"Yang, would you like to spin the bottle again? Why, yes Yang I would love to!" Her tipsiness came across in the question, but that just made Weiss, Coco and Blake laugh more. The second time the bottle found a different candidate.

"Dearest sister, if you and Sun were to have a kid, what'd you call it?"

"Yang! Why me and Sun?"

"I dunno, 'cause if anyone in here was going to be your husband in the future I'd want it to be Sun; there aren't enough blonds in our family." Ruby's eyes narrowed, confused as to whether her sister was being sarcastic or was on the wrong side of tipsy to realise what she said. In any case, the girl would have answered the same.

"Yang, you are blonde and Dad is blond. Adding Sun would be a third blond; against one slightly reddish-black haired me." Yang pondered that statement, then scoffed at the remark.

"Nah, it'll be fine. Now - your answer." RWBY's team leader sighed, thought about the question and then spoke.

"Well, I'd been wondering about for a little bit and I'd thought that, if it were a girl, I have always wanted to call her Blossom. I just thought it'd tie me, her and Mom together - Summer is warm and makes you think of yellows and oranges, plus Mom's cape was white; Rubies are typically red and so is my cape; and Blossom is normally pink, and pink is a combination of red and white. So yeah, Blossom."

"Aww, that's so nice sis. You've put a lot of thought into that." Ruby blushed slightly, her cheeks turning the shade of pink she imagined whenever she thought about her possible-future daughter's name.

"I mean, when you're not very good at the whole 'social interaction' thing, you have a lot of time to yourself to think about these things. Especially when you're meant to be revising or studying."

"I get ya, Rubes. But, what if it was a boy?"

"Oh!" Ruby had spent so much of her free time on this subject thinking about what the perfect name for a daughter would be that she completely forgot that there was the possibility for a second gender. "I... uh..."

"Pubert!" Sun chimed. There was a moment of silence in the dorm. Nora did her best to contain the laughter that she so desperately wanted to share with everyone. Coco giggled to herself under her breath, but the two Faunus' with acute hearing noticed and too started giggling. Neptune sat there with a grin plastered all over, contrasting Ren, Jaune, Pyrrha and especially Ruby's expressions of dumbstruck. "I could even tell you what his first words would be: 'Fuck you, Scarlet! Fuck YOU!'" That last part broke the ones who were restraining themselves and those who were originally confused by the monkey boy's remark. In the room of 13, 9 erupted with drunken laughter. JNPR were laughing, Velvet and Coco were laughing, Yang and Blake were most definitely laughing, even the cold Weiss Schnee was having a good old chuckle to herself. Neptune looked at his teammate and raised his hand to high-five him, only for the blond to have a cookie hurled at his face, the impact audible above the noise.

"We are _not_ naming our child Pubert!" the young girl cried, kind of wishing she hadn't just thrown the cookie that was in her lap.

"Scarlet and I had an agreement that I would name my first male child Pubert. I'm honouring my agreement, I'm being good!" A single streak of white light danced its way across Ruby's eyes with haste, dissipating as fast as it appeared.

* * *

This is going to be another one of those scenarios where I'm going to split the action up into multiple chapters. But don't fear, everything has already been written out and, as a result, I will upload the following few chapters on a daily basis - there's no point in me deliberately holding off on a chapter that's already been finished.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	15. Dreams of Futures, Nightmares of Pasts

Without breaking eye contact at all with Sun at all, Ruby found the bottle and spun it - the faint whirring of the air rushing in and out of the thing calming everyone down. It rested facing JNPR's blond leader, whose face was still red from the giggling.

[ _ **Jigdhu**_ _suggested this question after leaving a review! I appreciate it!_ ]

Ruby was blunt in asking Jaune the question. It was the first thing she thought of that would get all the attention away from her - aside from the obvious running away. She couldn't do that, she needed a reason to run and this wasn't good enough to be it.

"Jaune, what's the most embarrassing thing your sisters have made you do?"

"God, I... I don't know if I could narrow it down to one..."

"Oh really?" Nora's body and attention shifted straight to Jaune with everyone else following suit soon after. ' _Good_ ' Ruby thought, ' _no more of that for a while_ '.

"There was one time where, being the naïve young boy I was back then, my sisters fooled me into thinking that everyone needed to wear a skirt on the first day of school. So I did, and I was laughed in through the gates and laughed off the school premises 20 minutes later. That was pretty bad. Or the time when we were doing a little performance my oldest sister swapped my costume out for someone else's, which doesn't sound so bad - until I say that she swapped it with the tough girl in my year so that I would get attacked for touching her clothes. So there I was, wondering out on stage in a costume made for someone else with other kids parents laughing at 'that silly blond boy in the odd outfit'. And to make matters worse, I did get attacked afterwards and went home that night with a black eye and a grudge against my eldest sibling. Though in retrospect, that along with other incidents involving me and dresses or skirts is probably why I'm so used to them."

"I do have to say Jaune," his girlfriend interrupted him, "you looked marvellous in that dress." She smiled at him, her green eyes staring into his eyes of blue.

"Thanks, hun" he replied, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Gross!" Yang pulled a face as she spoke.

"Excuse us, but you and Blake made out for over a minute in front of everyone and we didn't say anything. I think I can kiss my girlfriend on the forehead if I want to."

"Yeah, well _we_ don't have a choice. _You_ did and you chose to stay and watch us!"

"...you don't care, do you?" Jaune said, his mind finally clicking at what his blonde friend was implying. She shot him a wink and some finger guns in defeat, her ruse foiled.

"Gotcha lover boy."

"As much as I don't want to break up this little conversation you two are having, I believe you weren't done answering the question." Weiss spoke matter-of-factly, even more so than she usually was thanks in no small part to the alcohol coursing through her small frame. "Besides, those weren't embarrassing at all. Embarrassing is when you try to surprise your sister with a Birthday Cake, but accidently burn down a large portion of the kitchen because you got distracted!" Jaune stared at Weiss and laughed.

"You burnt down your kitchen making a cake?!"

"Yes, you dolt!" Upon hearing that word, Ruby's mood fell further down the well it was already in. First no Emerald, then that bloody 'Pubert' nonsense and now that. Ruby didn't like being called a dolt, it was such a Weiss word. But Weiss only ever called _her_ a dolt; it was a special insult to her and in the young girl's mind it showed that she cared, somewhat. She also liked hearing her say it because it was a sign that the Heiress was frustrated and that her partner would need to find a way to calm her down or find something for her to take her anger out on. But sober Weiss called her dolt. It seems that insult becomes everyone's when the drinking starts. The cloak wearing girl had blocked out the heated conversation her two friends were having, so she only caught the rear end of it as she zoned back in.

"...my question how I like; and I am done answering for now. If I can think of any more, I will say later on. But now, if you don't mind." Jaune didn't let anyone else speak as her reached for the bottle and spun it. It finished facing Ren, which made Nora glum.

"Oh, and I wanted to get a question..." she spoke almost like a temperamental child, albeit a drunk one. Ren reassured her:

"Don't worry Nora - there is plenty of time for you to get a question. But, if it'll make you feel better, you can answer this question as well." She let out a drunken "Hooray!" as Jaune proceeded to ask them his question.

[ _This question came from_ _ **dragon11262**_ _, so cheers buddy!_ ]

"Ren - and Nora - what is your dream? Like, what do you want to achieve in life?" Ren was prompt to answer; clearly a thought he had on his mind for a while.

"I would like closure. When Nora and I were young, we were both orphaned in an attack on my home village. We found each other and escaped, but the thing that attacked us is still out there. I want it gone so that no other villages have to suffer like we suffered." There was no more that needed to be said. His point came across as heartfelt, the usually calm and reserved boy showing strong emotions towards whatever destroyed his way of life before. Jaune looked to the boy's partner, who was smiling at him and happy for his honesty.

"And Nora?"

"I want a family." Ren's heart started to beat fast and hard; this was the first Nora had spoke of this and at this stage in his life he was not ready for that sort of thing. "Not anytime soon, though. I mean, look at us! We're still at Beacon, still learning to protect the world from Grimm and evil. But in the future, I'd want to have a family." The magenta eyed boy sighed a silent sigh of relief as his heart slowed; he couldn't let his feelings show, it'd blow their cover and ruin the surprise that they were going to spring on everyone tomorrow at Brunch - there was no way they were getting there for Breakfast.

"You surprise me every time I see you Nora," Velvet mentioned as she hugged her girlfriend's waist "I never would have seen you a family kind of person."

"Yeah well, y'know... I don't recall my real family very much. All I can remember is that I hated it and that I was lucky I got out when I did, but I didn't think too far ahead of that initial 'Get Out Of There' impulse I had. I only just survived and made it to that day when I found Ren. We've never left each other's side since." She looked at her secret boyfriend, wanting to hug him so badly but she didn't want to ruin the surprise just as much as he didn't. She made do with a smile. Ren grabbed the bottle and spun it. Oddly enough, it landed back on Jaune. Instead of spinning again though, he decided to do much like what Jaune did with him.

"Jaune and Pyrrha what are your dreams? Sorry the question isn't any different, I'm not that great with these sort of things."

"That's okay Ren." Jaune replied. He looked at his girlfriend "Do you want to start?" She grinned as she looked at everyone else uttering all too familiar words that, after the past week or so have a far different and yet much more powerful meaning to her now:

"Do you believe in destiny?" Jaune chuckled to himself as she continued. "I see destiny as some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life. I believed that my destiny was to become a Huntress and for a long time I followed the path of what I thought was right. And my dreams, I always thought were out of reach, or just not right for me: I wanted my own life. But being a Huntress would have to mean I forfeit all of that to persue my destiny. But ever since..." she halted herself, unsure whether she was ready to give the information that only her team and Ozpin's group knew about "... an event very recently in my life, I have come to understand that your destiny and your dreams aren't so different after all. Yes, you can dream of something and then later discover that it was your destiny all along, but this is not like that. I found out that both of these things can change, and that sometimes the change is good. My dream is that I want a life. I want to be able to wake up one day and just do nothing. And as it stands, if that life is with Jaune I don't think I could have asked for more."

"And I wanted to make something of myself." Jaune followed Pyrrha's comment up fast enough that no one could butt in, but at the same time slow enough that it didn't seem too eager. "As we all know here, I was the only boy other than my Father in my family and as such was constantly humiliated by my sisters. I was told that it wouldn't matter if I didn't get in to Beacon, I could always come home. But that never sat right with me, so I made it my mission to do whatever it took to prove them all wrong. And yet, when I saw you guys I realised that I was no good in comparison to all of you. I resided myself to being the damsel of the group. But with extra lessons from Pyrrha, I've come to find out that I don't need to be as fast or as sturdy as everyone else - though it'd help - I just needed to play to the strengths that I have. And on top of that, I finally found someone who I liked and liked me back; no offense Weiss."

"I've already said I'm happy for you once, I'm not in the mood to say it again." The scarred girl folded her arms defensively, a gesture the blond shrugged at.

"Besides, I've already learnt more in the brief time here about myself than I ever would have in the overbearing shadows of my sisters. It's nice to be in the company of girls and friends who see me as an equal rather than their lesser."

"There are even some of us Jaune," Pyrrha said, taking his hand "who even look up to you." The pair smiled at each other and rested their foreheads together in a sign of trust and support.

* * *

Part two of the 'spin the bottle mini-saga {not as epic as it sounds}' done, expect part three tomorrow

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	16. Ties, Tries and Water Hatin' Guys

When Pyrrha's turn to spin came around, she used her semblance to force the bottle to stop facing Penny. She wasn't going to leave this to chance, she wanted to know everything. And as a result of her mind set at the time, her question did not hold back.

"Penny; please can you explain to us a little more about yourself? We hardly know you." That last part the warrior threw in to soften the blow of the question a little, but not a lot. Eyes turned to the Atlas girl as she sat up straight realising she was the focus of everyone's attention. Her cheeks would have turned a distinct shade of red, were it not for the fact that she hadn't been programmed to perform such an action. She spoke for the first time since they sat down.

"I suppose, as you are all my friends, that I can tell you. I am not like other girls. I was made in Atlas by General Ironwood and his scientists; I am the first synthetic capable of producing an Aura." The Schnee Heiress' eyes widened as the revelation hit her hard, Velvet seemed a little taken aback but soon got over it. Everyone else seemed reasonably unphased by the information. "I had many brothers and sisters, each of them an attempt to be what I am now. We all had unique serial numbers so that we wouldn't get confused with one another, but also as a way of showing the batch process we were made from. There was normally one or two of us from each batch who came out decent, then we would be put through trials to see whose circuits worked closest to a normal human brain to pass as one. None of us were perfect, but I was the closest they were going to get. I was Subject PN, Batch #33; PN33. That is why my name is Penny. There were a couple of my siblings who came close as well, but they had some traits that made them stand out a lot and so they failed. CC38 had the inability to react to certain things until 8.62 seconds after they had happened. Specifically, punches and kicks. RG13 had golden eyes, which were nice but also very easily recognisable – he couldn't exactly hide. On top of that, he kept referring to anyone blond as 'Princess' and tried to seduce them." Yang's eyes turned red upon hearing that, her short temper even shorter a few drinks deep.

"Oh, I can tell I wouldn't have liked him already."

"It is okay Yang. You would have been fine. Jaune Arc and Sun Wukong might have had to worry though." Sipping his drink at the time, the only reasonable response from Sun was to spit-take. The brawler and his blue haired teammate started laughing hard, almost hard enough that it was difficult for the remaining students to hear the end of Penny's backstory. "The only thing I had wrong with me was that I occasionally hiccup when stressed. They deemed that fault inconsequential and proceeded with inserting an Aura chip in me and then the rest is history." Ruby rose from where she sat and went over to hug the android.

"I'm so proud of you for sharing that Penny." Weiss shot her partner a glare.

"You _knew_ that she was a robot?"

"Um... yeah? I mean, I guess..." Jaune spoke before the real Princess of the group could verbally attack her innocent team leader.

"I'm impressed Ruby. I mean, no offence, but you're not exactly well known for being good with secrets." The little girl crossed her arms and slumped back down where she originally sat, mumbling to herself about how "she has her moments" or something.

[ _Sorry **death7559** for not wording my request better, but this is what I've made of what you said!_ ]

Penny spun the bottle rather awkwardly, but it ended pointing towards the monkey Faunus. She spoke in a very robotic manner - but in a way, that meant what she said was precisely what she meant and she didn't meander around the subject.

"Sun Wukong; I would like to hear a story about you and Neptune."

"Okay - like what?" The android looked perplexed at his remark.

"I am not sure, but I would like it to be interesting."

"In that case, how about the time Neptune and I nearly got killed after accidently attending a Crime Boss' Party?"

"That sounds most interesting. Please, tell us that one." The metallic sea green eyes focussed on the Faunus, who took a sip of his drink and then began reciting his story, everyone else present eagerly awaiting as well.

"Hathor, Naunet, Ionna and Zondra all formed Team HNIZ* and they were all very attractive. It's how the team got the nickname 'HNIZ Bunnies'"

"Ugh, if that's how the entire story is going to be then you might as well stop now."

"Hey, it's important to establish certain things so that the entire story makes sense, Ice Queen!"

"Just trust us Weiss." Neptune's attempt to quell the Heiress' distaste for the story failed miserably, she simply took a very aggressive swig from her bottle, emptying it and grabbing another one as the two boys continued. "So HNIZ, as Sun mentioned, are all very attractive girls and one day Zondra comes up to us and says, 'Hey, my Dad's hosting this grand party for his clients, wanna come?'"

"Right! And so we were all like, 'Pssh, yeah!' but she said that it was 'for his business and so it needed to be suited and booted to the max' and so we did"

"Yeah, and we looked good too. Sun went with Zondra and I got to go with Hathor and..." Blake stopped the blue haired boy to clarify with him one detail.

"Wait, hold up; Sun in a suit? Like, a _full_ suit?" The two Haven students looked at one another in confused unison.

"Um, yeah I went in a full suit. It's what 'suited and booted to the max' means." Before she could utter another word, Sun raised a finger to stop her and pre-emptively answered her question. "It'll be explained later on in the story." The cat Faunus looked at the blonde sitting beside her, who simply shrugged at the remark and shifted her focus back to the story at hand, her dark haired girlfriend following soon after. "So as I was saying, we arrive all suited and booted and we get in and it's a sweet party with cocktails and food and music and everything!"

"And all was going well until _someone_ fell and knocked one of the waiting staff over and into the main host, spilling drinks all over him."

"And that someone was me!" Sun pointed at himself heroically, expecting applause and roses to come flying at him. The only thing flying in that room was Ruby, who flew from her seat on the ground to grab a couple more cookies and fly on back, petals decorating her journey. Well, that and the time; it was 10:33 now.

"Yeah... see turns out that Zondra's Dad is actually Dyeus Bedagi, only the biggest underworld Crime Boss of the entire kingdom."

"And he didn't take too kindly to having his '54,500 Lien custom made suit ruined by some easily avoidable and equally as expensive drink spillage.' So yeah, that's when we were both grabbed and nearly thrown into the sea." Sun shuddered just recalling that memory.

"And it wouldn't have been pleasant either."

"See, Neptune here wasn't always deadly afraid of water. It was once just ironic hilarity that he disliked it so much given his namesake."

"But when you're being held by the scruff of your neck over a choppy Haven peer with the burly guy behind you saying that 'If and when he lets go, the pair of us _will_ end up drowning', it does things to your brain." The boy in question grew ever paler as the mention of large bodies of water continued, yet he bravely fought on through.

"Fortunately we managed to escape his grasp and make a break for it, but that stupid neck trap I was wearing meant that I just had another handle to have grabbed on to."

"And as luck would have it, as we are running away from the party, Sun's tie gets caught by goons and bringing him to a complete stop. Now I don't know if you've ever been stopped dead in your tracks by someone grabbing a tie round your neck -"

"I have!"

"- but something as small as that can do a lot to a man. That's mostly why he never likes wearing anything around his neck at all. That and he is just vain."

"I am not vain Neptune; I am proud! There is a difference!"

"Sure..."

"So yeah, I managed to get the fabric death sentence off and instinctively jumped on the first thing that was close by that they couldn't get to. And as it just so happens, that was the boat coming to Vale."

"So there you are Penny; that is our story. Good enough for you?"

"That was amazing! Thank you very much." The girl leaned back, having been edging her way ever closer to the words being said, satisfied grin on her face.

* * *

*HNIZ is pronounced "Hunnies" and all their names allude to Goddesses of Love/Beauty

There's part three for y'all, part four same-ish time tomorrow

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	17. Hair and Scissors

Sun tried his hardest to spin the bottle on his index finger then place it down on the ground to show off, but not only was he far too drunk for that, he probably couldn't do it even when he was sober. Eventually, after many annoyed glares from various girls around the room, he simply lay the bottle back down and spun.

"Coco, I gotta ask; what's it like for a human being with a Faunus?"

"So, like 'Being _in a relationship_ with' a Faunus or 'Being _lovers_ with' a Faunus?"

"Sure!" The dual-coloured hair was brushed away from the eyes of the second year, who was unsure whether he wanted her to talk about the former or the latter, so she settled on both.

"Well, in terms of being in a relationship with, Velves is no different to anyone else I've dated. I was much more inexperienced the first few time but I don't think that mattered with her. The only real difference, of course, is right here." The girl gently massaged one of the rabbit ears atop her girlfriend's head, who shut her eyes at the sensation and even unwillingly started thumping her foot on the floor in pleasure, much to the humour of the girl massaging. "Whilst some Faunus' wear their animal extremities with pride, or others hid theirs under a bow, Velvet had no choice and being the naturally shy person she was it didn't help her case. All it meant was that I had to take extra care of her and make sure that she felt safe being around other people. As for being lovers with a Faunus..." Ruby decided that she didn't want to taint her 'innocent' little mind with all this talk.

"Nope!" She jammed her fingers in her ears and started humming fairly audibly, a gesture that even her own grumpy teammate giggled at.

"...there's really not a lot different again. Granted, I'd only ever had sex with one other person beforehand and in retrospect they weren't even that good. There are a couple of things that are slightly different with certain Faunus' as Velves has told me. Now, you'd never need to worry about this sort of thing Sun but I'm sure Team RWBY has noticed a couple of things about Blake every so often." Ice blue and lilac eyes shifted their attention to their Faunus teammate, whose already red cheeks turned an even stronger hue accompanied by an awkward smile. Rather than Coco continuing and divulging false facts to everyone else, she handed the reigns over to her partner who was much more informed about this sort of thing.

"See every so often, much like their respective species, female Faunus' go into heat. Depending on the species, it could happen once a year - lucky bastards - or many more times. Blake and I would probably fall in the 'very frequent' category, happening every month or so, right?" Blake nodded.

"Mine kind of lines up though, so whilst it's extremely uncomfortable I only really have to deal with it once a month." The rabbit girl muttered a "lucky" under her breath before she continued.

"We get hot under the collar, our cores feel really tense and we are generally really restless. And really, we just need satisfying. Whilst self-satisfaction works, it doesn't compare to having someone else help you out." The usually shy and reserved girl opened up a lot with alcohol in her system, acting more like the girl Coco knows she can be when they're having their own little fun.

"I have to say, I can still remember the first time it happened when you wanted someone else helping you." Ruby jammed her fingers in her ear deeper, the sensation now hurting as the tips of her fingers were almost touching her eardrums. "I remember walking on your curled up on the bed, you looking straight at me, bounding up to me and saying 'Where are Yatsuhashi and Fox?' and I said 'Revising in the library, why?' and you just grabbed me and said 'I need to have sex with you. Right now!' I mean, I wasn't gonna say no. This was before we even thought about having feelings for one another; it was purely and simply to ease my Little Easter Bunny's urges."

"Stop it with the nickname, Coco..."

"Shut up, you love it really. As time went on it became less of a chore and I started feeling something towards her. I asked her out at the same time I asked her to the dance. And of course we left early to have sex, because why the fuck not? And this time it was so much more intimate; the first time we made love rather than had sex. That's another thing, a couple of traits from the animal tend to seep its way into the love life of the Faunus as well. Yang you might... are you taking _notes_?" All eyes, besides Ruby's, turned towards the buxom brawler who was scribbling down what her more experienced friend was saying on a piece of paper. She looked up from it, realising everyone else was looking at her.

"What? I need to know these sort of things..." she waved her hand towards the gunner as a sign to continue talking, shifting her own attention back to the paper.

"As I was saying Yang, cats tend to scratch a lot of things, so be careful with that." Lilac eyes lifted once again, a sly smirk coming across her face.

"That's alright, I've experienced it now. Besides; semblance." She winked as Coco added everything up: cats scratch, Yang semblance allows her to dish out twice as much damage as she takes... oh... The beret wearing girl quickly shifted the focus back to her and Velvet.

"Velvet is a rabbit Faunus, and I don't think we need to explain that one." She turned to Sun, who was engrossed in everything. "That's all I got Sun. Satisfied?" He nodded, though ultimately he felt like more questions were left unanswered than were answered. That may just be him though, there may not have been any questions unanswered. The fashionista took her turn to spin the bottle and it landed right in the middle of Yang and Blake, but as they were cuddling one another with no space between them you couldn't really say where the blonde ended and the Faunus started. Instead, she took her pick from the pair.

[ _Question submitted by_ _ **therichardater**_ _. Thanks buddy!_ ]

"Yang, I have seen what you are like when you lose just a single strand of your hair. What was your first haircut like?" Ruby perked up a bit upon hearing the question asked; it was one of her favourite Yang stories because it also involved her Dad.

"Me?" Yang replied sheepishly, wanting the question to go away. Not a chance. "It was... uh..." In an uncontrolled moment of panic, the lilac eyed girl chugged the rest of her drink in a matter of seconds. It gave her a bit of a confidence boost – there is a reason it is referred to as 'Liquid Courage' – but it was going to come back and bite her at some point and she knew that. She sighed a heavy sigh and started talking, the words of truth painful to speak. "Normally, this would be the part where I'd start lying." She looked up at her sister, her look apologising for her previous actions. "Where I'd say that my Dad cut off all my hair the first time because I misbehaved when I was younger and that's why I never liked any of it being taken out or anything because I didn't want that happening again; that's not true." Tears started filling her eyes, every sentence she spoke upsetting the girl more. Blake held her partner's hand reassuringly, calming her uncertainties about telling the story.

"It's okay Yang" the dark haired girl spoke with a calm that steadied the uneasy emotions of her girlfriend.

"My first haircut was boring. It was normal, like everyone else's. And it was boring after my Mom left and Ruby was born. But when I was 4 and a half years old, so before Ruby could really remember anything properly, I was told that my hair looked just like a blonde version of Raven's hair – my Mother's hair. And in that moment, I decided that it would stay like that. I told Dad that when I want my hair cut, I want it to still look like this, only a little bit shorter. I didn't want to lose the idea that I could find my Mom if I asked around for someone who looked 'just like me with dark hair'. The first time he cut it otherwise and I looked completely different after he was done over a year after I had first said; that was when I lost my shit at him. I punched him with a force that, even having just turned 6 that week, sent him skidding across the room. Ruby saw that and asked me why I did that to Dad, and I lied and said that he threatened to cut all my hair off again like he did when I was younger. He ran with it and ickle Ruby accepted it. But Dad and I both knew. That's why."

The room was silent as the information soaked in with everyone. Yang's younger sister seemed especially shaken at the revelation. For everyone else present, they had heard this story after knowing Yang for a few months for the first time tonight. Ruby; she'd lived with one of the stories for over 10 years of her life, only to be told that it was all false.

"Y'know," a deep raspy voice broke through the silence of the room like a scythe, "Raven did say that you were a splitting image of her when she saved you from Neo on the train that day."

"Uncle Qrow!" the young girl dashed to the Huntsman in a flurry of petals, grabbing hold of him as she got there.

"Hey there" he responded, ruffing her hair. "I might not see you again for a while; duty calls and all, so I thought I'd swing by and say bye now in case I don't get a chance later." The scythe wielder looked up from his niece at the room of students who, for the most part, didn't really know the strange man who had just walked in on them. "Saw your fight, Firecracker. Way to go kid." He grinned and gestured his niece's girlfriend. "And congrats; haven't seen you that happy in a long time." The lilac eyed girl rested her head on the shoulder of the Faunus sat next to her, the remnants of her tears staining her face slightly but her action and her Uncle's kind words lifting her spirits once more. "I also brought someone along who needed to talk with you." A girl walked into the room from previously out of view, her body language closing herself off from everyone.

"Emerald!" the girl dashed to her friend in another smaller flurry, the girls hugging as the smaller one got there.

"Good to see you Ruby." The mint haired girl smiled at the contact, her reaction causing a grin to form on the faces of Ren and Nora, who shot their partner a knowing glance as they had seen that sort of thing before.

"Glad you could make it Emerald" Coco said, lowering her sunglasses. "Because you still owe me an explanation and I didn't particularly want to go looking for you in the morning to get one." The Haven student parted from her chirpy friend and looked at the Huntsman, who simply nodded at her.

"Yeah, I do. I owe you _all_ an explanation." The pair sat down where there was space, the new girl grabbing a drink for herself beforehand. The Huntsman bid his farewells and let the students be. "There's a lot I want to get through, so there's a chance I may be talking for a while."

"Emerald, you are our friend." Blake spoke the truth. "That doesn't matter. You get what you need to off your chest and we will be there to support you." The girl looked at the floor hesitantly, doubting whether or not she could trust that what was just said would still ring true when she was done. She glanced up at Ruby and muttered words she remembered saying to her friend back when the tournament was it its early days:

"Promise me that you won't think badly of me." The young girl smiled and whispered her response verbatim as well.

"Okay Em, I promise." Silver eyes met red once again as the air of trust that had formed over them came back. Knowing that she could count on at least one person in the room to not lash out at her, Emerald raised her head and spoke clearly to everyone else present.

"In that case..."

* * *

Final part of the 'spin the bottle mini-saga {not as epic as it sounds}' tomorrow, then back to your regularly scheduled story

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	18. Emerald Reveals All

"I'd better start a way back. I had family back when I was younger, but they were killed in a vicious attack. I only survived because of my semblance. I left what little left of home after..." she paused as she realised that no one here had ever really seen her semblance; she was so used to being around Neo, Cinder and Mercury that it completely slipped her mind. "Sorry, I guess I should show you what I can do, right?" Emerald looked at the rest of the room to suss out who she thought would be the best combination of a strong imagination, a level-head and least drunk. After a quick glance, she determined that it was most likely Neptune. "Neptune, may I?" The blue haired boy nodded, willing to help where he could.

"Sure, what do you want me to do for you?"

"I want you to describe everything that you see happening as best as you can. I'm going to tell you beforehand that what you are about to experience is not in any way real, even if it feels it. Are you ready?" He nodded again. Emerald squinted and focussed him. There was nothing at first, then without warning the boy jumped, frightening a few other people as he did so. "What am I showing you?"

"A thunderstorm. But, it sounded so real... It can be because it was clear a couple of..." he cut himself off with a terrified cry as he leaped onto the tallest object in the room. "Guys, stand up! Quickly!" No one moved as his skin noticeably paled in front of their very eyes. "Please guys, get up! You'll _drown_ otherwise!" The two Faunus girls looked at the red eyed girl as she induced pictures of fear into the otherwise confident student.

"Emerald, can you stop that please?" asked Velvet in the nicest but firmest way she could. The girl shut her eyes, eliminating the connection between her and the boy. As colour made its way back into Neptune's skin, the girl wobbled and fell to her knees. Weiss and Ruby steadied her so that she didn't collapse on them all.

"Em?" Ruby queried.

"Sorry, it takes a lot out of me every time I use it." She did her best to look at the boy she just petrified. "Are you okay?" He tried speaking, but the demonstration he was part of dried his throat completely so all he managed was a nod. Eyebrows furrowed at Emerald from a few people, clearly not happy with her actions. "My semblance allows me to manipulate others' perception. I can project any image I choose into the minds of whoever I choose; the stronger their imagination, the more realistic and believable the images are in their minds but effective on basically everyone. The day I was orphaned, I discovered I could do it by happenstance and made them think that I had died along with everyone else. From that day for the next few years, I spent my time stealing and using my semblance to get by. Until she found me. Cinder Fall. She knew a lot about me the first time I saw her, I had no idea how long she had been looking for me. She... promised me food..." Muscles on the mint haired girl tensed at her own mention of her boss' promise. "That was all it was. But it kept me loyal. Kept me with her as we recruited the third member of our 'group', Mercury. As we talked to The White Fang. As..."

"You?" Eyes made their way to the feline Faunus girl, who looked shocked at what she had just heard. "That was you that night. When Adam first turned you away, it was you three."

"You were there as well Blake?"

"I mean, yeah. That would have been the last time anyone other than fellow members would have seen Adam and myself together – I kind of left The White Fang that night and never looked back. But I saw you walking away." Velvet cuddled closer to Coco as the conversation progressed. Nora kept leaning forward in intrigue, ever word spilling from the mouth of someone else fascinating her.

"But none of that really matters much. I was loyal to her and the plan. I questioned it once or twice, but every time I was greeted with resistance and usually a smack or two." Her hand reached to her cheek, the mere memory of her punishment bringing along the thought of the pain. "The plan was crazy, even now as we got so close I still don't believe what the plan involved us doing. Cinder wanted power and to be feared. And her solution to that was to steal the powers of Amber, The Fall Maiden of legend."

"The Maidens?" Weiss questioned "They're just stories. Not actual people, right?"

"No Weiss," Pyrrha responded, her face nearly expressionless, "The Maidens do exist. The current Fall Maiden's name is Amber. She is in a critical condition, but she is alive and real." Pyrrha of course did not know of what transpired after she left Ozpin that evening; Amber was dead and that Cinder had fulfilled her wish and become Remnant's New Fall Maiden. "Ozpin had asked me to become The Fall Maiden to keep the powers safe, but I eventually declined."

"That may have been for the best Pyrrha," Emerald continued, "Cinder may have just killed you and taken the rest of the powers herself. See, we found Amber and attacked her leaving her in the state that you saw her in, most of her powers gone into Cinder. But someone interrupted, so we needed to get to her again. We needed a distraction, something that would shift the focus away from what the big picture was. And that is where Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick came into play." Blake and Yang both tensed in anger at his name.

"So, you were working with that sonofabitch as well as The White Fang?" Yang's voice was harsh and her words struck Emerald with force. The girl could tell that everyone else in the room was feeling the same way and using Yang as their collective voice.

"If it makes you feel any better; I hated him too. Everything about him."

"It really doesn't." The naturally red eyes of Emerald flitted back to the cloaked girl sitting beside her and saw a young girl with a small supportive grin on her face, keeping her promise just as she would keep hers. A quick drink and a breath to compose herself later, she continued her story while eyes still stared at her in distaste.

"Cinder offered him 100,000 Lien once his side of the deal was complete. All he needed to do was rob as many Dust Stores and Warehouses as possible in and around Vale to cause enough of a diversion so that we could continue without worry. I worked hard finding answers to questions we needed and we were set to proceed with the plan, but the idiot started the plan earlier. The Breach." She hung her head, staring at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Mercury and I helped because we were there and we didn't want to draw attention to the fact we were plotting. And after everything was done, Roman locked away and the city being rebuilt, I saw something." Tears fell from her eyes and started to mark the carpet on which they all sat. "I saw the remains of a child crushed under falling debris from the attack. I saw what effect something small could do to everyday life as opposed to what large-scale panic the real thing would have been like. In that moment, reality slapped me and I was aware of every little thing that we were doing. And I vowed to stop it. I would not let it happen. I told Neo and she explained as best she could why she supported my decision and why she was in this mess as well. See it turned out that she and Roman were... married." The entirety of teams RWBY and JNPR called out in harmony,

" _HE WAS MARRIED?!_ "

"Yeah. To the girl who I think she said Yang fought on the train." The dark-skinned girl looked towards the blonde. "She said sorry, by the way. It's why she 'played around' with you so much; the more time she wasted, the greater the chance of somebody coming to rescue you. She didn't want to kill you. She just wanted the job done so that Roman could get paid and they could disappear and live their lives." Yang ridiculed the idea, but Emerald thought that if she didn't want to accept the truth then so be it. "Ever since The Breach I've been helping Neo find out where Roman was kept all while trying to hinder Mercury and Cinder as best I could. And this was the part I told you about during our match Coco."

"I recall" the fashionista cited. "But for the sake of everyone else..." she held her hand out to the rest of the room.

"Right. Cinder fixed a lot of the earlier fights in the tournament. Whilst a lot of them weren't clear cut wins, they were all chosen in such a way so that it would end up that Yang, Penny, Mercury and Pyrrha would all end up in the Singles Round. And this is where I was supposed to come in." Once again, the girl looked at Yang, who was hugging her girlfriend tight to steady her growing anger at the whole story. "Mercury put up a good fight but in the end, he was meant to lose to you. I was then supposed to then alter your perception and make you think you were being attacked by him once the round had ended. The shock and terror from the crowd would have alerted all the Grimm from in and around Mountain Glenn and they would have started heading towards Beacon. And then with again with Penny and Pyrrha. I was meant to show Penny swords multiplying fifty-fold each, causing you to overcharge your polarity blast and essentially rip Penny apart; another spike in negativity."

"Hold on Emerald!" Jaune broke the girl's flow as he spoke at her, the calm and collected Jaune everyone knew gone as he stood up for his team and friends. "Not only did you know that Pyrrha's semblance was Polarity – something we all know she doesn't exactly wave about like a flag – but you also knew that Penny was an android, something we didn't know until, what? Ten minutes ago. How did you –"

"When Mercury fought Pyrrha in that little battle in Goodwitch's class, he sussed it out based on what she did to his boots. And the Penny thing was Cinder. I didn't ask because I didn't need to know, but that part was all Cinder." The tension was rising all throughout the room. The older and more drunk students banded together against Emerald, physically the youngest siding with her because of her promise, the youngest by technicality – Penny – remaining completely impartial to everything.

"Isn't that convenient?" Nora replied with drunken sarcasm. "It's never you who has the information or does any of the fixing, is it. Always someone else; how can we believe you?"

"Guys, if Emerald didn't want to share it she wouldn't have." Ruby tried calming everyone's nerves, but to very little avail. "I think she believed that telling us all was the right thing to do, that knowing the truth would have been better than living in ignorance. But all you're doing is making things worse for her." Yang added her views to the argument.

"Rubes, you are our friend and my sister; this..." she didn't get a chance to finish before the young girl raised her voice in a display of rage that was more her sister's thing rather than hers.

"Emerald is my friend too! Now let her finish and then we will leave you alone!" The girl had made her decision, she knew who she sided with. Silver eyes made their way around the room ensuring that everyone understood what she was telling them. They ended on Emerald who finished the story as best she could through sniffles and tears.

"The end game was to cause so much negative thoughts and feelings that Grimm would swarm Beacon and to topple the Tower, destroying the CCT and leave the remaining Kingdoms in a panic. And Cinder would have become The Fall Maiden, achieving her own goal. I will say that, at the very least, Penny probably would have been killed in your fight with her Pyrrha because of my actions. Actions that I didn't take. Yang, you most likely would have been disqualified for attacking Mercury after the fight had ended in an unprovoked display because of my actions, that again I did not take! Because I did not take those actions, I was being taken to Mountain Glenn and dumped with zero method of defending myself against essentially an entire colony of Grimm. I would be dead, if it was not for Neo saving me on the ride there and killing Mercury afterwards. He will never come back to haunt me again. Neo has left me and has gone with Roman, who I freed about 5 hours ago." Calls and cries of drunken disgust were thrown her way before she could finish, but she did. "And do you know who helped me free him? Qrow Branwen!" Everyone's moods turned on a dime from disgust to confusion. "They are now living their lives away from anything and everything that could possibly harm them as free people. They are happy! I wanted to be happy, but I can see that I was a fool to think that would be possible. Your Uncle was wrong Ruby!" And with that final remark, Emerald left the room in tears and made her way back to her dorm. The small girl scowled at everyone else, taking a page from Weiss' book this time instead.

"I hope you're all proud of yourselves." RWBY's team leader got up and ran after her friend, slamming JNPR's dorm door on the way out.

* * *

And that my friends is the end of that. I'll take a tiny break to give myself a little time to take everything in that has happened this week, but I shall be back soon (Tuesday/My Birthday)!

But Divine Oedipus Excrement (it'll make sense if you understand it)!

We passed **THREE** milestones yesterday! We passed **500 visitors** to this story in April _alone_ , we broke **700 views in a day** and to top the whole cake off with the cherry; **3,200+ Story Views**! You have no idea how over the moon I am to see those numbers; I know it's trivial but My Gods, is it satisfying!

I'm not one to normally do that, but I'm just too excited to contain myself and I thought y'all should know how happy you made me today.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	19. Going with Your Heart

Ruby had to admit, she had no clue where Emerald's dorm was. Heck, she wasn't even sure if what she had just done was right. Sure, she had made a promise to Emerald that she wouldn't think bad of her for what she had done – which in all honesty she didn't think what Em had done in the grand scheme of things was all that bad – but she has just walked out of a room filled with friends that she has had since the first week of Beacon, the first day of Beacon, even her own sister; all in favour of going after a girl.

Y'know, when Ruby said it like that in her head, it seemed a lot weirder than it really meant to be.

The small girl paused for a moment to collect herself and find her bearings, but the thought she'd just had kept resonating in her mind. She left most of her long-time friends from her own school to go after another one who she really didn't know too well from somewhere else entirely. What was she thinking? Then again, she had been known to jump into things head first and then have to deal with the consequences later on... and they'd all be hungover as well...

"Way to go Ruby, you've really shot yourself in the foot this time." She started to walk again, listening closely for the tell-tale signs that her friend was nearby. Wandering slowly down the corridors that separated the dorms, she could make out the very faint sound of crying. She was glad that it was late and the Noise Curfew was in place, otherwise there'd be no way that she'd be able to hear anything in here. And she was also glad that, in her obvious sadness, Emerald neglected to check to see whether her dorm door was shut completely. The Beacon girl edged her way towards the door, peeking in just to check that it was in fact Emerald's dorm. I mean, technically it was her team's dorm – but that Neo woman never came into Beacon save for the tournament, she had no idea where Cinder was and Mercury was dead – it was essentially Emerald's all to herself, if this was hers at all. Fortunately, it was. Emerald was there on a bed, laying face down on the mattress and sobbing heavily. It hurt Ruby to see her friend so sad, especially considering that it was the rest of her friends who made her like this.

The cloak wearer crept her way into the Haven student's room and shut the door as gently as she could whilst still making a noise, her intention to make sure that Emerald knew she was there whilst still being far enough away to prevent the dark-skinned girl from lashing out at her on impulse. They faint click of the door startled Emerald, who shot up standing. Ruby looked at her eyes and saw that they were puffy, the normal white of her eyes now almost the same red as her irises. Neither one said a word, the older of the two girls still feeling very raw about the scenario – and rightly so. She had entrusted knowledge to what she thought were people she could count on to be supportive, only to have nearly every single one of them turn on her.

Ruby saw her friend narrow her eyes at her and pulled her dual sickles out from behind her. The girl lunged at her, giving Ruby little time to duck out of the way of her attack. Emerald swung again and again, each swing forcing the young student back into a corner. In a last-ditch effort, Ruby jumped from the corner along down to the door once again as the mint haired girl swiped down driving her sickles into the carpet and Ruby's cape. Only, Ruby didn't get snagged at all, her cape drifted right through the weapon. As Emerald readied herself to attack again, Ruby got up and stood perfectly still – arms down by her side, feet firmly planted on the floor. Emerald jumped towards the silver eyed girl, who watched unflinching as her friend flew towards her and phased right through her. Ruby turned to look back at the bed and watched as the real Emerald faded back into reality, the perception ghost disappearing instead. The girl stood there amazed; Ruby saw right through her ruse and even stood there as she could have potentially cut her open. But having already altered Neptune's perception earlier and being worn down even more from crying, Emerald's body gave way from under her. Ruby had no time to make her way across the room before the girl's head hit the floor hard, knocking her out cold. The last thing she remembered hearing was the young girl calling her name before she entered a world of black.

* * *

In her eyes, Emerald was only out for what seemed like a minute. She stirred, her body uncomfortable from a long day and her head in pain. She slowly opened her eyes, the simple act much more challenging than normal to do when you've not long hit your head and nothing wants to respond properly. She spotted a couple of rose petals drifting down to the floor heading out of the dorm but everything else seemed as it was before she fell. She turned her head to look down at herself and for the first time noticed that she was being covered a blanket to keep her body warm. It smelt so nice, like flowers.

A figured zoomed in through her door carrying a glass of water and a tiny handful of cookies. Ruby stood there, tear stains all the way down her cheeks and no cloak. Having registered how Ruby looked, Emerald checked the blanket again and realised that it was indeed Ruby's red cloak she was covered with rather than a blanket. The young girl sat beside her cross legged, placing the glass and the cookies near to the mint haired girl.

"I didn't want to leave you alone until I knew you weren't dead."

"Ruby... what time is it? How long was I...?"

"It's nearly 11:30, you were out for about 40 minutes or so." That didn't surprise the girl, sadly it wasn't the longest she'd ever been out after doing something like this. "I was so worried about you Emerald. I was too slow, I could have caught you..." Tears began forming in the young girl's eyes once again. Whilst painful, Emerald eased her body up to a comfortable sitting position, the cloak still hugging her lower body.

"Ruby Rose; you have done more than could have possibly asked for. You stayed with me, heck you left the party to make sure I was okay in the first place. Why didn't you stay with your friends?" The young girl shook her head, unsure how to respond.

"I dunno, I wanted to be there but at the same time I wanted _you_ to be there more. I hadn't been happier tonight than when you walked through the door behind Uncle Qrow. I don't like the stuff, but maybe if I'd had a bit more to drink I might have enjoyed myself more? I dunno. All I can remember is that I wanted you to be there." Emerald looked at her friend in confused wonder, no one had really said this sort of thing to her before. "I guess when you've had as many giant bowls of noodles as I've had your mind starts making you contemplate a lot of things, preparing you for the end..." The honest sentiment turned into a joke by the end making Emerald laugh. The sound calmed the Beacon student's worries as she handed her friend the glass. The pair of them sat in silence, the only sound made was the sloshing of water and the crunch of a cookie every so often.

"Ruby..." she said just as her friend was about to bite down on a cookie. "I'm not sure what to do anymore." For once, Ruby lay the cookie down in favour of talking to her friend.

"What do you mean Em?"

"I have no one anymore. Neo is gone, and she was my only real friend in the group. Cinder has vanished and that ass Mercury will _never_ bother me again! But that means that I'm alone. I don't want to be alone and I don't know what to do." Try as she might, emotion flew from the taller girl without restraints. She sat crying for a couple of seconds before a small pair of hands grabbed her own and locked their fingers together.

"It's alright Em. Let it out, I won't judge." Not needing to be told twice, Emerald let her tears flow wildly, her sobs just as strong as when Ruby first walked in on her. She gripped her hands tighter as time went on, the comfort of knowing that someone was there easing the pain of isolation she felt. As her crying died down a bit, Ruby freed one of her hands from Emerald's, placed a kiss upon the tips and placed that upon the lips of her friend. The girl's eyes widened in shock. She felt butterflies in her stomach and her heart racing like it never really had before. Then in just as quick a time frame she tackled her friend to the floor in a hug that sprung from nowhere. The two of them lay there, the smaller girl almost being crushed by the overzealousness of the other.

"Sorry Rubes! I didn't think for a minute there..." Emerald admitted, her face growing red with embarrassment. The girl was quick to answer.

"Meh, I'm not complaining." Her face too flushed red, her honesty surprising even herself. Emerald broke the hug and extended a hand to help her up. She pulled the smaller girl up, but didn't want to let go afterwards. The dark-skinned girl looked at their hands and smiled, clearly content with this as well. "Now, you should get some rest Em. I'll leave you be, you seem fine." The pair of them walked to the bed Ruby first saw Emerald on, a patch of wet where she had been crying still vaguely visible on the sheets. As they let go of each other's hand, Emerald once again spoke before she could register what she was saying.

"Stay." Silver eyes darted to her friend, not quite catching what was said.

"What was that?"

"I said, you're welcome to stay the night. No one else is going to be here and I wouldn't think going back to your friends at the moment is the best idea, do you?" Ruby smiled her sweet little smile.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Thanks, Em." The girl walked to the bed on the opposite side of the room and jumped in. Within minutes, the hectic day caught up to her and she was asleep. Emerald made her way into her own bed and too was asleep very shortly after.

* * *

Emerald jolted awake suddenly. She was dreaming about what could have happened had Cinder's plan gone ahead. She saw Nevermores and Ursa and Beowolves attacking Vale and Beacon. She saw The White Fang terrorising those who ran, killing anyone who got too close. She saw the faces of everyone she'd cared about recoiling in terror at the sight of something big flying overhead. It was one of the negative side effects of her semblance; she can subconsciously alter her own perception during dreams, living possible or future moments or reliving moments in her life as if they were happening right in front of her. After a few moments, the girl managed to compose herself, getting out of bed and reaching for the glass of water still left on the floor.

"...I want the ice cream Yang..." Ruby's sleep talking frightened the girl, causing her to knock the glass over and spilt the water all over Ruby's cloak.

"No, no, no!" Emerald did her best to soak up the water and dry the cloak as quickly as possible. She didn't want it to lose the smell she'd picked up on when she was being covered in it earlier; that lovely aroma of flowers. For the most art, she did okay. There were a couple of spots where it had soaked in a bit and they were wet through, but otherwise it was completely fine. She hugged the piece of red cloth close to her taking in the smell once again. It comforted her, it made her feel like there was nothing that could go wrong with her world. Much to her disappointment, the smell had faded significantly from when she was knocked out. Out of curiosity, the girl walked over to the heavy sleeper and ruffled her hair slightly, taking in the smell. There it was; flowers.

"...No, it needs to be that ice cream with the cookie..." Emerald silently giggled to herself, Ruby's nonsense speak was fairly amusing to listen to. She smiled as she walked back to her own bed. "...The mint goes best with these cookies..." she stopped in her tracks and looked at the girl, waiting for her to speak again to see if it was a coincidence. "...I want the mint, Yang..." Emerald didn't want any more proof, she walked back to the bed Ruby was in and got in it herself. She just lay there facing the ceiling, listening to the girl beside her quietly ramble incoherently in her sleep, the smell of flowers ever present. It made Emerald so happy; she loved the smell on Ruby's cloak because it calmed her, but having the smell on Ruby herself just made everything so much better. But she suddenly had her doubts about her feelings.

She wanted to try something she hadn't done in a long time; it was risky but could prove quite pleasant if it works. Besides, she was in bed anyway; there was nowhere for her to fall and hurt herself. Emerald focussed hard on Ruby, on what she wanted her to see, then placed her hand on the girl's forehead. She wanted the girl to see her in her dreams. This wouldn't normally work on people that well because they'd only tell her about it in the morning, if ever. But Ruby being the heavy sleeper and mumbler she was, Emerald could see what she thought almost instantly. There was a decent gap between each occasion that Ruby spoke, but Emerald was willing to be patient.

"...Emerald! Glad you're here..." Well, that's a start. "...I want the cookies..." Okay, back to normal it seems. "I love you Em..." Red eyes widened as she retracted her hand. "...Don't go Em. I don't want to be without you... or the... cookies..." A soft giggle escaped from the mint haired girl; she clearly had feelings for her, and she could sense that thought process was shared by the other. The girl reached across again and kissed the forehead of the younger girl, a grin growing on her sleeping face.

"Sleep well, my little Cookie Monster." Emerald drifted off once again, with Ruby mumbling beside her and the smell of flowers filling her nose.

* * *

I have to thank **Jighdu** for this, I was honestly unsure how to end the story, but having constantly mentioned 'Gemstones' in reviews, it gave me an idea and I've run with it. So thank them for allowing this story to continue on a little bit longer.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	20. Best Cure for a Sore Head in the Morning

Emerald stirred from her slumber and she felt amazing; there hadn't been a night in the past few years where she hadn't woken suddenly or been kept awake or went the entire night without sleep altogether. This was the first night she had felt relaxed and rejuvenated. And it was bliss. She rolled over and looked at the girl who was still sleeping beside her. She took in all the details of the young girl's face; the way her hair flowed elegantly over her head, avoiding her features and leaving them exposed; her naturally rosy cheeks; her irresistible smile that she had plastered on her little face. Emerald couldn't help but smile, relaxing herself so that she could stare at the girl opposite whilst using as little effort as possible. It was this girl here - the little red bundle of energy that kept her from doing something stupid last night, even though she didn't know it. The girl whose mere scent levelled her mind and made everything right in the world.

The girl she was adamant that she had fallen for.

Ruby shifted, her body waking up slowly. Her eyelids parted slightly to see Emerald staring back at her, grin on the mint haired girl's face. Silver eyes shut once again as she reached out to hug her, the girl shifting in to receive the hug on offer.

"Morning Emerald..." she said drowsily. The taller girl rested her forehead on her friend's own, shutting her eyes contently as she replied,

"Morning Rubes." The two girls remained there for what seemed like the longest time, neither wanting to part. But as Ruby's eyes opened once again, her brain clocked what she was seeing and she recoiled, uncertain of what was happening.

"Ahh, Emerald, what the hell?!"

"We were cuddling."

"I noticed!"

"You seemed happy a second ago."

"I didn't know what was going on a second ago!" The young girl started hyperventilating in the shock.

"Ruby, just calm down. Take a deep breath." The young girl did what she was told, her breathing steadying. "Now, we talk." Ruby nodded, the pair of them sitting up in bed and ready to discuss the issue at hand. "So - where'd you want to start?"

"Why are we sharing the same bed?" Seemed a good place as any to start.

"Right. So, I suffer from very bad nightmares. It's one of the negative side effects of my semblance: I can alter people's perceptions consciously but subconsciously I alter my own. I haven't had a proper night's sleep in years and I have grown accustomed to that. But that doesn't stop the nightmares. Last night I had one so I went to grab the water and your sleep mumbling startled me. I knocked the water on your cloak and I cleaned it up and before I went back to sleep you started talking about... ice cream." Ruby nodded, having been told that she'd said that a lot from people who were unfortunate enough to hear her sleep talking. "Quick question, what's your favourite flavour?"

"Strawberry. Why?" Emerald grinned slightly as she recalled what she had muttered last night.

"'I want the mint Yang'. That's what you said. Why not strawberry?"

"I... don't know... I can't control what I say in my sleep."

"So what I did after hearing that, was I did some dream projecting. It's kind of like my normal semblance, only requiring much more focus and with a longer list of possible repercussions. I projected myself into your dream."

"... That wasn't real?" The girl sounded hurt at that statement, which took Emerald by surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that what was happening was real... you came along, we laughed and joked and we..." the girl stopped herself, her hands fidgeting nervously at words that had crossed her mind, eyes shutting and looking away.

"What happened Ruby?" The girl scrunched her eyes harder together, hoping to black out the sound of Emerald's voice by not being able to see her - however _that_ was supposed to work. "Rubes..."

"I like you!" Whilst the older girl wasn't surprised by what the girl sat beside her said, she was surprised by how she said it. It exploded from her like it had been wanting to get out for ages but had never found the right moment.

"Okay. For how long?"

"... The Breach." This time, Emerald _was_ surprised at what was said.

"Really? That long?" The young girl nodded, uncertain on how to act in this situation. "Why didn't you...?"

"You were never around for starters, and I'm terrible at social interactions of any sort."

"Okay. Well I'm here now. So what do you want to say to me?" There was a long pause between Emerald finishing and Ruby starting. She was unsure what to say or what to feel - she felt lost.

"Ever since The Breach I'd thought about you. The way you looked, the way you acted so confidently, the way you... just were; I grew to like it. And not like as in 'Weiss-like', which is really more tolerating than anything, this was different. And basically every day that I've had a moment of spare time it would be dedicated to either thinking of baby names - because who _doesn't_ do that at some point - or thinking of you and how I wished that you were there with me..." Ruby reached across and held the dark hand of her friend, who clearly didn't mind if it meant that it'd be easier for her to finish her explanation. "Last night when you came in I felt better than I had the rest of the day. I enjoyed it more than watching my own sister becoming the student Champion of Remnant. And I enjoyed it because it involved you." Ruby paused to stare at Emerald, who was staring at her as well, taking in every word. "When you left, I listened to my heart and followed you out of the room. A lot of the time when I do that, I end up in trouble with someone else having to bail me out. This was one of the few times I did it and it felt like I was doing something right. But what about you? I don't want this to be one sided or anything..."

"It's not Rubes, trust me." The girl sighed, gently rubbing her thumb along the back of Emerald's hand. "You are so lucky; you have this gift where you seem to make friends as easy as you eat cookies." The analogy made the silver eyed girl smile. "When I got here, only three people knew our true intentions and so all interactions we made were basically us putting on personas to get information for the plot. But I found myself failing to keep one with you. You made me trust you without even knowing it. You almost made me confess what I was doing to you after your First Round fight, because you were just so easy to trust. And I hadn't felt that way since I first spoke to Neo after The Breach. The only real difference is that you could talk back and make me smile with words better than Neo ever could. And that was all I needed. When I woke from my little accident late last night, do you know what the first thing I noticed was? The smell of flowers on your cloak."

" _Rosa Synstylae_. It's a type of Rose that only flowers in reds, pinks and whites. Mom found a way to collect enough of it and grind it down and then weave that into fabric, giving it a distinct smell and as an added bonus it makes petals come shooting out of it when I use my semblance, which is pretty cool. Summer wore a white cape, mine is crimson and I want my daughter's to be pink."

"But do you know that it wasn't just on the cloak? I smelt it on you. The aroma of flowers is literally everywhere you go, if you get close enough." Emerald saw that as a nice segue and shuffled in closer, a gesture the flower-girl didn't seem to object to. "And that calmed me right down. It was probably the combination of having someone there for me and the smell of you and your cloak that helped me drift of last night. Ruby, I like you too. So much so that I want more nights like last night, more nights where I can fall asleep next to the girl I want to and wake up feeling at ease with her still there for me." Ruby started to grin, her mind finishing Emerald's sentence before she had even started it. "Will you be my girlfriend Ruby?"

"Of course I will!" Emerald smiled, then started leaning in to kiss the girl. Much to her surprise though, she was halted before she got too far. "I just... uh... don't think I'm ready for the whole 'kissing' thing just yet. Sorry, but you have to remember I am still younger than everyone else by a good year and a bit." Emerald leaned back, slightly disheartened but understanding. "Hugging's still a go, though."

"Good" Emerald replied "because you weren't leaving this bed without getting another one." The girls leaned into one another and embraced, holding each other so tight it seemed like they would drift apart for all eternity if they let go. "Do you want to get up yet?"

"Nope."

"Do you want to lie down again?"

"Yup." And with that, the pair fell sideways back down onto the pillows still wrapped in each others embrace. They broke only to adjust themselves so that they were more comfortable, but then they were back to holding on to one another. The new couple lay there, happy with what had just transpired. Happy to find a girl that would be there's to cherish. Happy to have loved. Just, happy.

* * *

The Pancake Bar was surprisingly big. Looking at it from the outside, it looked like a little café with about a dozen tables and a nice quiet atmosphere. But once you walked through the large doors off to one side, you walked into a full on restaurant sized place. Ren had made sure to book the largest booth a few days prior so that they could all sit in one space together. He had also warned the establishment of their tendency to end most meetings involving all of them and food with a giant food fight - a fact they didn't seem to mind so much with their favourite customers.

Coco and Velvet couldn't make it this morning due to previous obligations they'd forgot about the night before, so they rushed out very early in the morning and still very much drunk. Coco was perpetually wearing sunglasses though, that ought to help. Penny had bid her friends a found farewell and left before they all went to sleep, making her way back to where she was supposed to be and would eventually head back to Atlas soon. So that left Sun, Neptune, Team RWBY (minus Ruby) and Team JNPR. Down one side of the table sat Blake and Yang, along with Sun and then Jaune. Pyrrha sat beside him at the head of the booth, next to Ren, Nora and Weiss. Neptune rounded everything off, sitting on one side of the booth on his own but close enough to Weiss and the rest of the group to not feel left out.

"What are you waiting for?" Nora chimed, her hangover not as great as others. "Dig in!" Everyone had, at the insistence of Nora, at least a plate with pancakes stacked roughly 12 high and covered in syrup. According to Nora, it was "the best way to get rid of a hangover"; while a few people there would have disagreed, they didn't want to seem rude. Jaune finished one of his pancakes then broke the quiet, asking Yang a question.

"So Yang, has the reality of being 'The Champ' sunk in yet?" The blonde raised her sunglasses off her eyes, squinting at the glare she caught off of Mercury's goggles.

"Not really. It's going to take a little while. But this little fluff ball has reminded me not to let it get to my head, haven't you?" She grabbed her girlfriend's shoulder, pulling her closer. The Faunus started to speak, but realising she still had a mouth full of food, swallowed it before she started again.

"You're failing to mention the part where I said 'We wouldn't want your ego to get any bigger else none of us would have room to think.' Is that because you know it's true?" She teased her partner with that remark who just smirked at her, neither denying nor accepting anything. "But the victory can't be the reason Ren." Magenta eyes shifted focus from the plate of food to the girl at the corner of the booth.

"I agree." Weiss said, wiping her mouth before speaking further. "You've had this space booked for a good couple of days, and this was before Yang even made it into the Singles Round. There must be something else you two aren't telling us." Ren and Nora looked at each other and gave a nod, signalling that it was time to spill the beans. Meanwhile, Yang slipped her Scroll out of her pocket and into her hand, hiding it away from everyone else's sight.

"Y'know how Ren and I have always said that we were never really 'Together-together'?" Heads bobbed in acknowledgement. "Well... we kinda lied." Those who were much less hungover clocked on and began welling up with excitement. Yang had too, but waited for the words to leave one of their mouths, her thumb hovering above the screen of her Scroll.

"Nora and I are actually in a relationship with one another." No sooner had he finished speaking, Nora's Scroll began vibrating. She went to go pick it up and answer, only to see Yang's face pop up on the screen.

"Uh, Yang... why did you...?" The brawler acted innocent, playing it up immensely.

"Oh, that! I'm sorry, it's just that..." her fake persona dropped in an instant as she finished "I fucking CALLED IT!" Nora looked at the edge of the table in front of her, slightly embarrassed at herself. "Why didn't you just tell us all?"

"I wanted to." Ren spoke instead of Nora, the sentiment coming off as a bit of a surprise to most of those present. "Nora, on the other hand, thought that if people knew we were a couple when we got here that they'd try their hardest to split us up."

"'When you got here'? You mean, you've been together since before Beacon?" Sun seemed just as surprised as everyone else.

"Oh yeah!" Nora broke her gaze with the table's edge to once again look back at the group, her fears over talking about it clearly gone. "We'd put off doing this for a week or so because it'd clash with the tournament, but last Wednesday was our fifth anniversary!"

Neptune recoiled in surprise. Weiss slammed her hands on the table. Pyrrha unintentionally caused hers and Jaune's cutlery to go flying out of their hands, one of the forks clonking Jaune on the head. Sun nearly choked on the piece of pancake he was eating; fortunately Yang slapped his back and forced it out of his airway. Blake gasped.

Then there was silence from the group.

No words.

No sounds.

Nothing.

"Congratulations!" Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune, Blake and Yang all got up and hugged the couple, whose faces had each turned a shade of red.

"Why were you so worried about telling us Ren?" The boy shook his head at his team leader and pointed to his turquoise eyed teammate. "Sorry, Nora."

"It took me nearly 2 years to muster up the courage to admit to Ren that I had feelings for him. I don't think I'm very good with this whole thing, do you?"

"That doesn't matter Nora. We'd all support you no matter what." The Faunus said, echoing her thoughts from last night. This time, there was much more chance of her words sticking because emotions weren't on an alcohol seesaw.

"Hey!" Yang called to the staff, her voice hurting the sensitive ears of those with poor heads. "Can we get a couple more huge plates of these things? We've got a lot of celebrating to do!"

* * *

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It's a chapter of two halves and really they couldn't be more different, I love that about this sometimes. But there's something on the horizon that some of y'all might not like as much...

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	21. Ruby's Secret

Ruby walked down the street hand in hand with Emerald, smiling the whole time she did. Whilst the young girl was inexperienced with this sort of thing by no means did it mean that it wasn't a wonderful experience. No words were said, because no words were needed. Their company was all they could ask for.

After a little bit of searching, they came across the street where the All You Can Eat Pancakes place where everyone was meant to be going this morning was. Unfortunately for Ruby, as the couple got closer they saw her friends and teammates leaving the restaurant having finished not too long ago.

"Ruby! You're here!" As her sister called from down the street, the young girl dropped her girlfriend's hand to go and speak with her. Everyone else converged on the two; including Emerald, albeit much more hesitantly than the rest.

"Hey sis, how you feel...ing?" Her words drifted as she spotted chunks of pancakes and syrup in her sister's blonde hair, plus the remains of some streaks of it on her face as well.

"Exhilarated!" Yang grinned, her breath heavy from exhaustion. "We had a food fight!" That made sense why she looked a mess. She glanced over her sister's shoulder to look at everyone else who, sure enough, were also covered in the remains of the aforementioned food fight.

"That's great." The scythe wielder spoke with an air of disappointment; she clearly wanted to have been there with them. The blonde ruffled her hair.

"Hey, cheer up." Despite how often she rarely did cheer up when someone told her to, this time she did. As she turned her attention to the rest of the group though she felt a wave of shame wash over her, like she had done everyone there wrong. The first words out of her mouth reflected that.

"I'm sorry for shouting and walking away from you guys." The young girl refused to make eye contact with anyone, opting instead to look at their footwear. A pair of black converse, white wedged heels and black boots made their way towards where she stood and the people attached to those feet all hugged her at once.

"You have nothing to apologise for you dolt. _We_ were the ones in the wrong."

"We were all drunk to a certain degree, some more so than others but all of us past the point where we get frustrated faster." The Faunus girl broke the hug first to look at Ruby, her bow now back on her head. "We owe you an apology." Amber eyes flitted across to look at Emerald, who was waiting away from everyone still a little upset over what was said to her last night. "And we owe you an even bigger one Emerald."

"Guys, it's fine. I don't want there to be any trouble." The mint haired girl looked nervous to be around these people again who, not half a day earlier, were belittling her for sharing information to them she believed would be better for them to hear. Weiss took her shoulder and ushered her back to the rest of the group.

"We don't want any trouble either. Like Blake said, we all owe you a big apology and it seems fitting that we each apologise individually - we all did you wrong in different ways." As they got to the group, apologies began. Ruby stood with her sister away from it all, smiling at her girlfriend.

"Was she alright last night Rubes?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. She was fine. It was rough to start with, but we made it through unharmed."

"Right, so she didn't try to do anything stupid then?"

"No. Well, kinda... she tried to semblance me into fighting her. I saw through her plot." The girl sounded proud at that last part, as far as she knew no one had ever seen through one of Emerald's perception alterations but her.

"Well, love does help you see what other people tend to do more clearly." Ruby froze slightly at that remark; did Yang know already? "Are you two official yet?" Lilac eyes shot her sister a knowing glance.

"How do you already know?" The blonde grinned and hugged her younger sister, taking that answer as a 'Yes'

"First; because I am amazing at that sort of thing. I saw through Nora's lies and called the fact that she and Ren were in fact dating. Didn't think it would have been for five years, but yeah." Ruby's eyes widened just as everyone else's did when they first had the 'five year' bombshell dropped on them. Yang caught that little gesture and responded accordingly. "I know, right! Second reason, I am your sister and as such I know a lot about you; the name you gave your little toys when you were younger, where you hide your secret stashes of cookies around your room back in Patch and in our dorm -"

"How do you know about the cookies?" Ruby voice went deep and her eyes narrowed, her attempt at being scary and intimidating to her big sister coming across only as hilarious and nowhere even remotely near to scary.

"- which leads nicely into point number three. Ruby, you are about as subtle as using a Nevermore Feather for a writing quill."

"Using it for a what now?"

"Jesus, you're young... Basically, you really are not subtle about where you hide the cookies _or_ that you have had feelings for Emerald. Reason four, you talked about her in your sleep." Ruby narrowed her eyes once again and balled her fist in front of her.

"Curse you subconscious mind!"

"And finally: we all saw you walking with her down the street. We could all pretty much guess from that." Yeah, that'd do it. "So what were you going to do today Ruby?"

"Well, we were going to come and have pancakes with you, but it seems that you have a) Just finished eating there, and b) Just finished destroying the place, so we can't exactly do that. So I'm not sure anymore." The pair started walking back to the group, their conversations coming into earshot of the other lot.

"That's okay; first dates are hard. But you're out now, go somewhere that makes you happy and that you think she'll enjoy too." The girl took that advice to heart as she walked up to her partner, linking arms with her as they listened to the rest of the group finishing their apologies to the mint haired girl.

* * *

"Ruby, where are you taking me?"

"I have already told you, I'm not telling you."

"And I've already told you, that doesn't make a lick of sense!"

"Just shut up and follow me." The two girls had been walking for a good hour and, according to the one leading the way, they weren't too far away now. But there was no real beaten path that they were following, Emerald was being dragged hither and thither through woodlands and forests she knew next to nothing about. The only thing that could be determined was that this wasn't Forever Fall; whilst leaves were falling around them they weren't awash with the constant red hue synonymous with that place. Ruby hopped through bushes and over stumps like it was second nature, occasionally flying up a large tree to make sure she could take in her surroundings and see where to go next. Emerald made her way at a slower pace, tripping on roots and stopping every now and again to untangle herself from the fauna that she had waded through.

"I don't understand Ruby, why couldn't we have just used your tree path to get there? It seems to be a hell of a lot easier than this." Ruby stopped herself and turned back to face her girlfriend, picking a twig out from her hair as she gave her reason.

"Well, yes it is quicker, but you might see it up there and it'd ruin the big reveal. Plus, I want to take my time with this." The girl with the red tinted hair turned round and began walking again. "Now come on, we're really close. And I promise, we'll use the trees on the way back." Emerald remained where she stood, amazed at what she had just been told. Her little bundle of energy _wanted_ to take her time. This has to be good after that. The older girl followed the path of her friend for no more than a minute before the smaller of the two peeked through a bush and then turned back to her.

"It's here!" she almost squealed, finding it difficult to contain her own excitement. "Are you ready?" Whilst slightly apprehensive, Emerald put her trust in her companion and nodded.

Ruby pulled back the bush to reveal a decently sized open space within the middle of the forest. As the autumnal leaves fell throughout the forest, here sat a perfectly pristine garden with flowers blooming, butterflies floating about and leaves on the trees so lusciously green. Even the sky, which hadn't changed at all in reality since they walked into the area, just seemed brighter - the paler blue of a sunny Fall day replaced instead with a much richer and more vibrant blue sky of Springtime. Emerald wandering in, gaping at everything she saw in pure awe. There was no explanation that she could think of to describe this place; it was heavenly. "What'd'ya think, Em?" she asked, nervous to hear the reply. In all honesty, there were no words that could be strung together in this language or any other that she knew of that could accurately do justice to the area she was walking in.

"Holy shit Ruby..." The young girl squealed and tackled the girl in a hug, taking her response as a positive.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew you'd love it here!"

"Ruby, what is this place? How did you find it?"

"Well, I like to be alone sometimes to think. And one day I went out for a long run and kind of got lost, so just kept walking in one direction with the hopes of bumping into something I knew, _et voila_ ; this place. It hasn't really changed one bit since I first found it, it seems to be like this forever. Up until recently I had no clue what it was that kept this place like this. But now I think I do. I believe this is the Spring Maiden's Garden."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well look at it Em: it's always Spring here. I want to believe that she made this so that she could always come back here whenever she wanted and feel at home. But I wanted something in here for me. So I tried something." She took her girlfriend by the hand and started walking, the dark skinned girl staying by her side as she continued. "I thought that if it was always like this, what will happen if something new was added. So I looked around Vale one day and found a botanist that sold Fall blooming flowers, I bought one and then came back at the next opportunity I could. And when I did, I planted a flower that was set to bloom in about a few weeks everywhere else, but months away in this place. I left it with a note that said ' _Please grow for me. I want this to be my flower in here. I'll keep the secret. R. Rose_ '. I didn't come back for a while as there were things we needed to do at Beacon, and The Breach happened. And after that, I came here..." They stopped, Ruby stepping in front of Emerald obscuring her view. "...and I saw the flower had bloomed. And every time I came here I walked straight to this flower and I thought of you. Thought of us."

Ruby shifted herself once again, showing Emerald what she had hidden from her. There, standing out amongst the smaller Spring flowers, was a single tall one; very evidently Ruby's. It stood in the flowerbed proud, shaking ever so slightly in the gentle breeze that swept through their clearing. Its petals lay splayed open, revealing a very strong red centre. The petals themselves started as a soft silvery-white colour near the centre that slowly faded into a brilliant, almost neon, green at the tips of them. There was only one flower, but that was all it needed - it made everything else look pitiful around it.

"It's the second most beautiful flower in here." She pried her eyes away from the flower and looked back at her girlfriend. "Besides you, of course." As the young girl blushed, Emerald kissed the tips of her fingers and placed them onto her friends mouth. "I don't want to leave..." she sighed, her mood dropping ever so slightly.

"That's alright Em. We can stay here as long as you..."

"No, not like that Ruby. I have to leave again soon, don't I? I need to go back to Mistral and return to the shitty life I had back there. Away from everything here." Ruby's eyes filled with dread; her girlfriend was going to leave her and she hadn't even been here long. She knew she didn't do distances too well and where Emerald would be _if_ she crossed that distance no one knows.

"But Emerald..." she was shushed.

"C'mon, let's not spoil the day. I've got somewhere I want to show you as well, before I leave. But that can wait until the evening. For now, I think I'm going to go and bask in some Faux-Spring sunshine, if you want to join me?" Ruby stood still, glum over what she was going to have to give up in less than a week. "Hey, I'll be fine. You've got your team that needs their leader to focus on them rather than someone outside of the close-knit group you are. So don't worry your pretty little head about me; alright Cookie Monster?"

Head... An idea popped into the young girl's mind, one that could save everything.

"Sure thing, my... um... my, err... nope, I got nothin'."

"You won't have to worry about that soon, so don't. Enjoy the 'Now' while it lasts."

* * *

The girls sat peacefully in the shade, basked merrily in the sun, laughed, joked and enjoyed being in one another's company. Emerald had resigned herself into believing that this wold be one of the last days she would spend with her, so she was going to enjoy it. As the sun started setting, the two of them made their way back towards the Academy, using Ruby's treetop route this time instead - which was so much faster. The pair touched down in Vale thirty minutes after they had left the Secret Spring Garden and Emerald wanted to take Ruby straight to her destination, an offer the smaller girl politely refused.

"I will get there, just not right this minute. I've got to go something very quickly back at Beacon. I'll be as fast as I can. Ping me where you want to meet in a little while, okay?" The red eyed girl accepted this, bringing her girlfriend closer in an embrace.

"If you wouldn't mind, could you grab a candle please? A small one'll do."

"Sure thing." And with that, the bubbly teen sped off in a shower of red rose petals as Emerald walked to where she was gong to meet her soon. After a little while of going full speed back towards Beacon, Ruby made it - she was out of breath and it hurt to move - but she was here. She dragged herself in and closed the door behind her, resting as she allowed herself to be taken where she wanted to go. As the elevator doors slid open at the top of the tower, Professor Ozpin turned round in his chair to greet the young girl.

"Greetings, Ms. Rose. And how can I help you today?"

* * *

I hate to admit it to you guys, but this feels like the beginning of the end for this story. There's not much I can think to write about without it coming across as forced for this story. I'd just thought you ought to know now...

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated


	22. A New Start

Emerald sat on the corner growing slightly impatient. Ruby has Speed as her semblance and was bouncy and bubbly anyway, how could she be late? The girl sat by a wall with her back to an alleyway, waiting for the girl with the red tinted hair to come flying in. Sure enough, she did.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the girl puffed, clearly still out of breath from using her semblance so much to get where see was going. "Beacon thing took much longer than I had thought it would. Also, nearly forgot the candle. But I didn't, it's here." She held out a small white candlestick, nothing fancy about it at all. "Why did you need this again?"

"I'll show you." She hauled herself up off the floor and walked down the alley behind her, the last rays of sunlight for the day guiding her down. Ruby followed and stopped by a small memorial in the alleyway, a candle burnt basically down to the last bit of wax.

"Emerald; is this?"

"The kid who I saw after The Breach? Yeah, this is him. I felt responsible for his death, even though I was probably nowhere near here when the building collapsed on him. And I've been doing this ever since I've been here." She took the candle from her girlfriend and replaced it, using what little flickering flame there was on the old to ignite the wick of the new. "This may be the last time I do this, so I want you to continue this; at least until you graduate if you can remember." Ruby just smiled. To Emerald, it was a sign that she would keep her promise for her. To Ruby, something better. "Now come one Rubes. The main event's coming up soon and we need to get there before the sun sets properly." The couple linked hands and started to run.

After five minutes of running-turned-jogging-turned-walking, they finally reached the building they wanted to be at. It was uninteresting, dull and looked abandoned. Even the door was sealed shut with no sign of it being tampered with in years. Ruby zipped round the building, unsure if Emerald had made a wrong turn or something.

"Forgive me for asking but, why this building?"

"It's not what's in the building that I want to show you Ruby; it's the view from on top." With that, the girl jumped up onto a ladder above head height on the left side of the building and started climbing up. Taking in and acting on the silent command, Ruby too found the ladder and proceeded to climb the building. She reached the top and stood with Emerald near the edge, the newly rising moon facing them. This was, for lack of a better word, beautiful. She had never seen Vale like this before, only from street level and from the dorm window at Beacon Academy. This was something else entirely; manmade structures silhouetted by the moon's brilliant white light, the shimmering off the usually grimy looking water of the bay almost mesmerising.

"Emerald, I don't know what to say..."

"Say nothing Ruby. Just experience." She grabbed one of Ruby's hands and wrapped her other round the neck of the girl. Ruby took her free hand and put it round Emerald's waist. And the pair started dancing to a soundless tune of their own inception, moving when it felt like they should move. Their bodies met and with that their timing, their breathing, the beating of their hearts all synchronised to the other's.

"Rubes?"

"Mm hm?"

"Please don't forget me. Go to the Garden, come to this rooftop, do anything you want to so long as you don't forget me. I won't have that luxury."

"Emerald, how could I forget you? I love you..."

"Don't." Her response was cold and harsh, like the words Ruby said were an insult to her very existence. "You'll only hurt yourself and me more if you say that." In all this time, Ruby forgot to mention what she had disappeared back to Beacon for.

"I never said why I wanted to go to Beacon briefly, did I?"

"No. Only that it took longer than you thought it would."

"I went to talk to Ozpin. I explained your scenario to him and wanted to know what his thoughts on it were and if there was anything he could do. Well, he mentioned that there is always a bunch of students who don't make it through to join his school for one reason or another. But there are also those unlucky few who could make it, but unfortunately there aren't enough people to fill the requirement for a full team of four."

"Ruby, what did you do?"

"I asked if he could contact them. And he did. They're coming in as soon as they can, then they can catch up on all the work they've missed in the first semester and a half, then they can start with everyone else proper in the third semester. There's three of them Emerald, and Ozpin has said that he would like you to be the fourth member of that team." The mint haired girl pushed herself away from her friend momentarily to process what was just said. This girl had just gone to the Headmaster of the school and asked if he could form another team so that her girlfriend could stay here? Emerald moved closer again and kissed Ruby's forehead, tears starting to run down her face.

"I can't believe you'd do that for me Rubes!"

"Em of course I'd do that for you. I was truthful, said that you'd have nowhere to go but the streets, nothing to turn to but a life of petty crime once again. He seemed to know all about what you did and what you planned to do, but in the end he said that you deserved a second chance at life. 'A chance that he and the staff at Beacon would be willing to give her'."

"Ruby Rose, I would be lost without you." The girl smiled a tear stained smile. "Thank you." They hugged close once more and proceeded to sway and dance in the shattered moonlight. This was the start of a new beginning for the pair; sure, they were on different teams, but they were a couple that were together at Beacon Academy. The only distance between them was the length of the corridors, and that was what they wanted.

"Can I say it now?"

"Say what?"

"Can I say that I love you now? Or do I still have to keep that feeling hidden away?"

"You can say it," the silvered eyed girl was about to open her mouth before the girl opposite put a finger to it, stopping her "on one condition." She pointed to her own lips briefly. Ruby smiled and forgot to even say the words that were on her mind. Instead, she held her partner's cheeks and stood on her tiptoes as she kissed her girlfriend tenderly.

Five seconds. That was all it was, but in that time butterflies filled stomachs, heartrates skyrocketed, passion and security was exuberated from the girls and two branches on the tree of love convened to form a single, ongoing branch; one that was sturdy, built on trust and destined to last. Emerald was glad that she had made it to where she was now. In her life, she had done wrong and she felt bad. She had done what she thought was right and felt worse. But not this time. When it came to making this vital decision, she felt she had chosen wisely.

* * *

"Listen, I want to help you."

"I know what you _want_ to do! But I have my own plans!"

"Yes, and 'your own' plans aren't even your own. I can see that straight away from the way it looks and sounds. They're single-minded and they will destroy everything, even you."

"I have my own plans, one's that don't involve her in any way!"

"And what a brilliant idea that is. I can see what your plan involves, and I can tell you that it won't work. I can already spot several glaring mistakes and errors waiting to happen..."

"What have I told you before: GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"There isn't a 'your head' anymore, Cinder! It's ours now and until we work something out I am not going anywhere." The previous Fall Maiden tried reminding the current holder of that title this piece of information over and over again, but it seemed to be getting nothing from her. "Look, we've gone over this many times in the past few weeks since I've been in your head. We have one goal and if we are going to get it done we _need_ the help of our sisters." The woman stared at herself in the mirror, imagining her reflection as it's own person using her body as a conduit for speaking.

"Those three are not my sisters. They are yours and I want nothing to do with...AARRGH!" A sharp shock coursed through Cinder's entire being, causing the woman to collapse into a heap in the bathroom. "What was that?" she asked, her rage flicking to fear like a light switch.

"That? Oh, I just sent an impulse through our brain to make it think that we were being electrocuted. I can't do a lot up here except give you advice that you probably won't listen to and, when I feel like it, give you another shock. Want another one?"

"No! No, I'm good."

"Good. Now, _our_ sisters are being hunted by the likes of you for their powers. If she got hold of all four of us, The End of Days would be upon us."

"Well aren't you just a barrel of fun?" the fiery eyed woman quipped, pulling herself back to standing.

"I don't intend to be. I am being realistic. Clearly you don't seem to understand the severity of it all, either that or you are ignoring it. In any case Cinder, we have to find the remaining three Maidens." The woman sighed, slowly accepting the fact that she would be burdened with this task until such a time where as it as complete or she was dead; hopefully option one.

"Fine, where do we start?" If the ex-Maiden had a face, it was easy to tell that she would have been smiling.

"That's more like it..."

* * *

And we come to the end of the story. I have **one** more chapter in me, so expect it in the next day or so.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated


	23. Family Photo

"Hey, Mom. It's the big day today. It's, uh - I'll admit, it's been tough. Being in the position I was in when I started at Beacon didn't help, but my team was so supportive and we helped each other through it all. Team JNPR have helped a lot as well. But I have to say, I wouldn't have made it here today if it wasn't for my girlfriend and her team. Just as we became a unit, so did our teams. Along with JNPR, the twelve of us did so many things that would have even made Qrow go 'Ooh, bit much?'" A mid-Spring breeze blew through the trees behind, sending petals flying from the cloak the woman was wearing. "But anyway, I've got to head off now - don't want to miss this. It was nice talking to you Summer; I truly am thankful for the fact that your lovely daughter shared with me your final resting place so that I could speak with you, just as I know she does whenever she's home." Emerald kissed her hand and placed it on the slate standing by the cliff. Summer Rose's grave still stood strong after all these years, not a single scratch on the stonework. She threw the hood of the cloak on and turned to leave. She only made it a couple of paces before she stopped herself, turning to look at the grave once more. "If Ruby is just like she said you were, then you would be so proud of her right now." And with that, she started running back to the house in Patch.

It had been a long time since the 40th Vytal Festival and a lot of things had happened. Emerald and her team started in the third semester of their first year and the team quickly became a formidable force within the school. JNPR and RWBY discovered the plot to find and potentially destroy/capture this thing called 'The Relic' hidden in Vale and when the time came the then final year students lead the charge to defend the school. After that giant battle at Beacon, Emerald and Ruby went back to their Secret Spring Garden and saw that a second flower had been planted alongside Ruby's original one with a note saying ' _You earned this flower. Spring_ ', confirming their theory from all that time ago that this was the Spring Maiden's Garden. And it turned out Cinder had in fact received the Fall Maiden's powers; as one day there was an article on the news regarding the sighting of what appeared to be a woman in red flying on her own with a fiery orange aura surrounding her. A few people knew or could guess the truth, and Emerald was most certainly one of them.

Weiss had sadly left her friends to return to Atlas and take over the Schnee Dust Company soon after graduating, but her time spent as a student at Beacon humbled her from the harsh girl that started to the woman she was when she left. The SDC benefited from this as well; whilst still holding a majority over all of the Dust sales around Remnant, she expanded their arm out and tried as best as she could to incorporate as many family run Dust shop owners into their work scheme as they possibly could, trying to get those people back into that lifestyle. She even received a message front Flynt Coal thanking her for doing that for them, his father hadn't been this happy since his Dust Shop was shut down by the Schnee's. He said it was nice seeing that there was still a Schnee who thought of the rest of the world.

The White Fang had been toppled, with thanks and praise going to the fully fledged and fully reformed Teams RWBY, JNPR and CNSE*. Adam Taurus brought a full frontal assault to the citizens of Mistral in hopes of destroying the CTT much like Cinder had planned but failed to do and wreck havoc on Remnant. On top of that, he aimed to kill every last person who stood in their way, be they human or Faunus. It was a hard fought fight, a few of the twelve very nearly lost their lives but in the end the only one who lay dead was Adam. Blake informed everyone before he died that, in the 'law' they enforced back when she was a member, it was custom in The White Fang that whomever challenged the current leader to a battle and defeated them must then slay them and take their place as the figurehead and new leader of The White Fang. She said that these were rules that Adam had implemented, and that with this they die with him.

Blake returned to Menagerie for half a year after the ordeal, taking Yang with her to meet her parents. They were accepting of their daughter and her girlfriend and gave them both their blessing. Blake also handed back the title of Leader to her father; she wanted nothing more to do with The White Fang directly as she had been from a very early age, a sentiment they too accepted. The two girls were the first couple in their friend group to tie the knot together; that was about two and a bit years after leaving Beacon and a few months after the end of The White Fang. Everyone attended, Weiss even talked to Ghira and Kali and tried to smooth out some old creases in the Schnee and White Fang's relationship in an informal and relaxed setting. And whilst she wasn't there for the vows and things, Raven Branwen made her appearance at the reception afterwards. Mother and daughter had a lot to talk about.

* * *

*Emerald's Team is pronounced "Chance", due to the fact they were all given a second chance whilst at Beacon

* * *

Emerald made it back to the house in no time at all; the journey always seemed to go by quicker when she wore her partner's cloak. She opened up her Scroll to check the messages she'd received but her attention was drawn to something around her. Something fast, but not Ruby - she would never be this subtle. Fists clenched as she readied herself for an attack at any moment. Suddenly she was thrown to the ground so fast she barely had time to make a sound before her head made contact with the grass surrounding the house. There she lay, bested and helpless as Li Mao Xiao Long sat there on top of her.

"Auntie Emerald, you're here!" the Faunus child cried excitedly, his golden brown hair shimmering in the glorious sunlight, tea rose coloured eyes staring at her and cat ears sitting atop his head dancing in glee.

"Hi there Li. Wow, you sure are getting strong aren't you?" The child beamed at her.

"Yeah, Mom and Mommy are the best teachers in the whole world! One day, I'll be the strongest person ever. I will win the Vytal Tour-man-nent, just like Mom did!" The red eyed woman ruffled her nephew's hair and played with his ears a little, causing the boy to giggle loud enough that Yang heard from inside. She walked out to greet them, her hair still as radiantly gold as when Emerald first saw her at Beacon but much shorter. See, after she and Raven had a lengthy heart-to-heart talk at hers and Blake's wedding reception, Yang finally made peace with everything and, as a result felt she didn't need to have her hair like she always remembered it. So she had Blake trim it right down. She didn't like the look, so it was in the process of growing back out again. It was still a messy golden mane, only now it was a shoulder length mane instead of a mid-back length one.

"C'mon squirt, leave Auntie Em alone. Give Mom a hug instead." The boy bounded off his Aunt, kicking her in the stomach a bit as he did. "She's got a lot to be thinking about right now."

"Ow..."

"Sorry Em, he's just excited" she said, helping her sister-in-law up and kissing her cheek to greet her. "As are you I presume. Heard anything yet?"

"Well, I know they're en route here, but that hasn't changed since the last time you asked so it's anyone's guess at the moment." The blonde lifted her son onto her shoulder with ease and started heading back to the house, Emerald walking alongside. "How's Blake feeling at the moment?"

"Nervous for Ruby. She remembers what it feels like and she didn't feel like doing that again any time soon. I've promised her that if we decide we wanted another one I'd be Mom instead."

"Aw Yang, that's so considerate." The woman shrugged, thinking nothing of it.

"Yeah, but emphasis on the _'_ if', Em. We have our hands full with a certain energetic one and I don't think we could manage two like this. Blake struggles with keeping me an Li Mao in check; she'd probably die if there were three of us and I don't really want that. I am not willing to lose my kitten." Li Mao made a horrendous noise of disgust at that.

"Mom, that name's gross!"

"Can it, buster! I can call your Mom whatever nickname I like, because she is my beautiful wife and I love her." The young boy pulled a face, clearly not too happy with the fact. "She's lucky as well. Being part cat means it only lasts two months at best with her. I'd be pregnant for nine months. I'm not much of a 'waiting' person."

"I'd noticed" Emerald shot her sister-in-law a smile, which was returned quickly. The three of them got into the house and walked into the living room. There was Blake drinking her tea, an empty space next to her where Yang obviously would have been sitting, Tai Yang and Weiss Schnee, taking some time off from her duties as President of SDC to spend it with her former team on a big day like this. Emerald was still surprised to see her, even though she had done this before on my different occasions.

"Weiss, it's great to see you again." The President rose to greet her old friend.

"It's been too long Emerald. Sorry I couldn't make it to the last few things; business is business I'm afraid and I can't choose when things like that happen." They hugged each other as the younger woman spoke, her snow white hair still tied in a neat ponytail like it had been all these years.

"It's fine, honestly. I'm glad you could make it to this one though."

"Well, considering what we always do, I'd probably be berated by Ruby for ruining tradition. But I'm glad the dolt insisted we always did this; it's nice to have a day or two off." The rest of the adults nodded in agreement; they all didn't have as taxing of a job as Weiss did, but days off are days off.

* * *

An hour or so after Emerald showed up, Yang's Scroll pinged. The two pairs of cat eyes in the house picked the sound up immediately.

"Is it them Mommy? Is she coming home?" Li Mao was all over the place trying - and failing - to contain his excitement of his Auntie Ruby coming back. Yang looked at her Scroll and read the message just as Blake's ears shifted to the faint sound coming from outside. The couple smiled as they got up and started walking to the door, the Faunus taking her overexcited son's hand. Weiss followed them and Tai Yang was about to as well before he stopped and turned to Emerald, who was still planted firmly on the sofa. He walked back to her and sat.

"What's the matter?" her father-figure asked.

"I'm nervous. She didn't want me to come with her and that worried me. Did she not think I was good enough for it?" Tai hugged his daughter-in-law.

"Emerald, Ruby is a weird one. She is _definitely_ her Mother's child, I'll tell you that. Summer did it to me as well and the exact same thoughts were going through my head, but do you know what? It didn't matter. Because when I got the message that she was on her way home I didn't care anymore. I was going to be there for her. And that's what I want you to do for my daughter, alright?" He had such a way with words. In an instant, Emerald's fears had gone and she was up and jogging to catch up with the rest of Team RWBY. In no time at all a vehicle made its way to the horizon. And just as swiftly it was right by the house. Qrow switched off the engine and got out, Raven exited too.

"Raven?" Tai queried.

"Hey Tai. Before you ask, Qrow dragged me here. I didn't want to seem like I favoured my honorary-niece over my own daughter, but someone was just too excited." She turned to Yang. "Sorry, hun."

"It's fine, it's not like this'd be the first time." Yang really didn't seem to mind. Qrow walked to the rest back door of the car, turning before he opened the door.

"Ready to say hello everyone?"

"Qrow, cut the bullsh-"

"Raven" the man warned "there are children present."

"Right, right. Yang cover your ears." Blake and Li Mao found the joke funny, as did Weiss. Yang did not. Qrow eventually did open the door to let his niece out of the back of the car, cradling her new born baby in her arms.

"Hey everyone" she spoke through a smile. Emerald walked up to her and kissed her on the lips, happy to see her with her again.

"Glad you're home safe sweetie."

"I'm glad to be home. Those hospital beds were torture. You're wearing one of my old cloaks..." she said, smiling as she noticed the red cloth draped around her partner's shoulders.

"I went to go and speak to Mom and I felt rude not wearing it there. Also, I missed you - like, a lot - and I wanted to wear it to remind me that you were going to be home soon."

"I missed you too Em." The new parents kissed once again then faced the rest of the group. Li Mao hid behind the leg of his Faunus Mom. "Ren and Nora say hi, by the way. They would have come, but they've got a mission to go on so we parted ways just outside the hospital. Have you heard from Jaune and Pyrrha at all?"

"We had, yes." Blake spoke, her usual soft tones calming the silver eyed woman from her state of overabundant joy that she was in. "They're really enjoying the Honeymoon and apologised a lot for not being here to see the baby. It's their first stop when they get back though."

"Good to know." The small woman looked at the little Faunus hiding behind Blake's leg. "Hey there Li. What you hiding for?" The child, whilst inheriting Yang's unbridled energy, also inherited Blake's tendency of sudden shyness.

"Li Mao?" Blake purred softly, her maternal voice calming her child's unease. "I thought you wanted to see the new baby. What's wrong?"

"I might... hurt it."

"Aww, Li." Both of his parents came in and hugged the boy, the physical traits of each of the ex-Beacon students showing in him when they were together like this. "Auntie Ruby wouldn't let you hurt him..." Yang stopped herself, unsure if what she spoke was truth. "It is a 'him', right?"

"It's a girl, Firecracker. You ought to know that 'Auntie Yang'." The avian Huntsman smirked his classic Branwen smirk, getting a raised eyebrow from his sister and causing the lilac eyes of his blonde niece to blink to a crimson shade along with a furrowed brow and a slight shine to her golden hair.

"Yang..." once again, Blake deescalated the situation and calmed her wife.

"You already had a name for her too, didn't you?" Emerald spoke, cuddling Ruby's shoulder as she did.

"I have." Silver eyes and tea rose eyes made contact as she beckoned the child towards her. "Li Mao Xiao Long, meet your cousin; Blossom Rose." The woman kneeled down to his height so that he could see the baby better. He - along with his Moms, Tai Yang and Weiss - all looked at the child. She had dark hair with the slightest shading of red near the tips, much like her Mother and Grandmother before her. Her skin was a healthy tan colour and when she opened her eyes to view the outside world, everyone could see that her eyes were a beautiful cherry-blossom pink: a perfect blend of her parents' eye colours and apt considering the name Ruby wanted their child to be called.

"Ruby, she's beautiful." Weiss was on the verge of tears; her position at the top of SDC and her lineage meaning she had to void herself of any emotions to show how a Schnee dealt with things. But moments like this gave her an opportunity to let loose and let the world see Weiss Schnee as the person she wanted to be rather than the woman she had to be. "You two are so blessed."

"Thanks, Ice Queen." Ruby said with a smile and a wink. The girl's ex-partner from Beacon didn't even attempt to retaliate as she would have done all those years ago, she simply took it on the chin and wiped away the first tear that had escaped from her eyes and rolled its way down her cheek.

"Why don't you start your own family Weiss?" Emerald asked. Both when Li Mao was born and five years later now that Blossom is here, Weiss had given the impression to Emerald that she wished she could have that. "It looks like you want one, but I haven't seen you enough to know why you wouldn't." She'd either been asked this question a lot or she'd been waiting for it to be asked for a long time, because there was hardly any time between Emerald finishing her question and Weiss answering.

"Yes, I do want to. All four of you are lucky. As are both JNPR couples. But I'm a Schnee. Lots of people marry into the family name so that they can gain status, wealth and power. Winter would rather risk her life in the Atlas Military than have another man like our Father and Whitley in the family. And I think in the same way as her, but I don't want to give up SDC to Whitley because he would just set us back and undo the nine years of my life I've dedicated to making the company better for the world, not just the personal gain of the man at the top. Until I find someone who would follow the example that I have set completely, then and only then would I consider retiring from the company to have a life of my own." More tears fell from the eyes of the woman is she lowered her head in personal defeat. But with a deep breath, she lifted it back up again as a smile grew on her face. "Besides, I have all the family I need right here, right now." The four teammates, as well as Emerald all met where Weiss stood and embraced, Ruby being particularly careful as she was still holding Blossom with one arm.

"You're such a sap Weiss." Yang teased her younger teammate.

"I know, but what are you going to do about it; teach me how to not show emotions? I've done that my whole life, I don't need your help." Blake laughed at that remark, despite the fact her wife and friend were trying to be heartfelt.

"And _there's_ the Weiss Schnee everyone knows."

"Oh shut up, 'Kitten'." Li Mao groaned at that nickname, causing the five women to all look at him. He ran to hide behind Qrow and Raven, hiding his face and making them all laugh. There was no hard feelings between them at all, just some well needed banter among old friends.

"And speaking of families..." Qrow mentioned. He got his Scroll out and waved it, his impatience getting the better of him.

"Right, of course." Tai Yang ushered everyone over to where he stood. Qrow jogged over with Li Mao to be with the group and threw the Scroll back to his sister so that she could do the honours.

"Everyone ready?" They all stood there, excited and in position. "Everyone say, 'Family!' And with a click, the deed was done. Li Mao was too eager to see and nearly hit the Scroll out of his Grandma's hand. Luckily, she had quicker reflexes than the young Faunus child. Once the photo was finished, Raven showed all who were present - and they were pleased with the result.

Qrow was standing at the back on the left, smirking. Next to him stood Blake, her right arm on her son's shoulder and left wrapped around the waist of her wife, who was stood there with her free arm shooting the camera a thumbs up and a wink. On the far right at the back stood Yang and Ruby's father. In front of them stood Weiss and Li Mao, then sitting on the floor at the front was Emerald and Ruby, holding on to their new born baby girl.

Every time something big happens - like a wedding or the birth of a child, or sometimes just because nothing big had occurred recently - Ruby insisted that they all gathered together at the house in Patch and took a family photo like this. And judging from the smiles on everyone's faces in the photo, they wouldn't have it any other way.

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 **} END {**

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Holy shit guys! I was never expecting this to be so much fun. And I'm not sure what happened, but on Sun 9th April I had ~1,450 views, by the morning of April 13th that number was already at 2,500 and not 10 hours later that number passed 3,000; as this final chapter goes up this story has had **6,507** views! I know that they're just numbers on a screen but to me, the fact that my work has captured the eyes and minds of that many people is absolutely amazing to me! Whilst part of me wants to thank each and every one of you for sharing this journey with me individually, I like to do things with my day and I don't have all the names of everyone. So:

\- To those who reviewed, I hoped that you liked your little moment in the limelight in the 'spin the bottle mini-saga {not as epic as it sounds}'. And yes, that was my official name for Chapters 14-18.

\- Those who favorited the story, I am happy to know that you see this piece of my work fit for your collection of amazing literature on this site, and I hope that I can fill another slot in the future. If not, there are many more amazing budding writers waiting out there to fill them.

\- Followers of this story, I am sorry for flooding your inboxes every day/every other day/every third day with a 'New Chapter' notification, but I hope that it was all worth it in the end. Sorry I wasn't much more consistent... but this was a learning platform

\- A _very_ special thank you to _**dragon11262**_ , who started following the story from essentially day one and has been there throughout the entire writing process. My friend, you clicking that little favourite box on your screen and writing that first review made such a huge difference to me. It made me realise that I wasn't just doing this for myself, but for a larger audience than I could ever have imagined at the start.

Now, I know that a few people may be a little confused as to why I didn't stick with the norm and have WhiteRose instead of GemStones. Well, I'm not one for sticking to the norm, it felt right in the story, I wanted Emerald to have her redemption arc and I believe that having some of the lesser shipped couples together gives a story some individuality & a chance to explore - as far as I could see less than a handful of people have put them 'Together-Together' in a story. That's my reasoning and I refuse to change it. I kept basically every other large ship together though, so there's that.

I will be taking a much needed hiatus from writing for a little while; I have bigger and more pressing matters to attend to outside of this. I'm thinking that I'll do a few more One Shots before committing to another full-blown stor _y_ when I get another idea for one. I may need some of your help and ideas for that. Also, if any of you artsy-er readers out there want to use the image I painted out for you of their 'family photo' as inspiration for your own artwork, by all means! (I'd like to see the result if you do)

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As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated.

Until next time,  
 **FeugoFox42 :)**


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